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THE  DEMOCRATIC  MOVEMENT  IN  ASIA 


NOWHERE  18  THE  DEMOCRATIC 
DRIFT  IN  ASIA  MORE  MARKED  THAN 
IN  THE  FACES  OF  ITS  NEW  SCHOOL 
GIRLS. 


THE   DEMOCRATIC 
MOVEMENT  IN  ASIA 


TYLER  DENNETT 


ASSOCIATION    PRESS 

Nbw    York:     347    Madison    Avenub 
1918 


-,    .:.     J-O^ 


Copyright,  1918,  bt  The  Asia  Publishino  Co. 

Copyright,  1918,  by 

The  International  Committee  of 

Young  Men's  Christian  Associations 

CARPENTIER 


•  •  •  •    • 

••  •   •• 


FOREWORD 

The  following  chapters,  now  brought  together 
with  many  revisions  and  with  the  addition  of 
much  new  material,  were  first  printed  in  Asia, 
The  theme  was  developed  in  a  lecture  which  the 
author  was  invited  to  deliver  before  the  members 
of  the  American  Asiatic  Association  on  the  sub- 
ject of  Foreign  Missions  and  World-Wide  Democ- 
racy. The  fact  that  the  material  thus  collected 
and  presented  was  acceptable  to  Asia  and  to  the 
American  Asiatic  Association  is  striking  evidence 
of  the  interest  and  favor  which  the  subject  has 
won  for  itself.  It  is  only  within  recent  years  that 
a  secular  magazine  and  an  association  which  has 
no  relation  whatever  to  religious  propaganda  would 
have  found  the  facts  with  reference  to  foreign  mis- 
sions worthy  of  so  much  consideration.  It  must 
also  be  evident  that  the  point  of  view  of  the  au- 
thor is  detached  and  impartial,  rather  than  either 
partisan  or  critical. 

The  facts  were  gathered  in  the  course  of  two 
extensive  tours  through  Japan,  China,  the  Philip- 
pines, Malaysia,  and  India.  They  are  the  ob- 
servations of  a  tourist  who  merely  took  the 
trouble  to  turn  aside  from  the  usual  routes  of 
travel  to  make  investigations  at  first  hand.  A 
large  place  has  been  given  to  the  narration  of 
incidents  and  stories,  because  each  bit  of  evidence 


FOREWORD 

is  cumulative  rather  than  conclusive.  It  has 
been  the  repeated  impact  of  these  situations 
described  here  at  length  which  has  produced  the 
convictions  out  of  which  these  chapters  are 
written. 

The  photographs  from  which  the  book  is  illus- 
trated were,  with  two  exceptions,  taken  by  the 
author. 

A  complete  list  of  acknowledgments  is  im- 
possible. The  author  is  grateful  to  a  host  of 
friendly  people  throughout  the  countries  visited 
for  their  never-failing  hospitality  and  their  sym- 
pathetic understanding  of  the  purposes  of  the 
quest.  It  is  not  unfair  to  make  special  acknowl- 
edgment of  the  inestimable  assistance  received 
from  Galen  M.  Fisher,  of  Tokyo,  and  George  A. 
Fitch,  of  Shanghai,  in  the  way  of  introductions 
to  their  distinguished  friends  among  the  Japanese 
and  the  Chinese  peoples.  Special  thanks  are 
also  due  to  the  editors  of  Asia,  at  whose  invita- 
tion the  chapters  were  first  prepared  and  with 
whose  enthusiastic  cooperation  they  were  com- 
pleted. 


[vi] 


CONTENTS 

Chapter  Paok 

Foreword v 

I.  Asia  in  the  Family  of  Nations  ...       1 
II.   The  United  States  in  Asia 13 

III.  What  Asia  Thinks  of  Missionaries  .     41 

IV.  Builders  of  Civilization 59 

V.  The  Missionary  Schoolmaster  ...     87 

VI.  The  Missionary  Doctor 109 

VII.  The  Emancipation  of  Women  ....  137 

VIII.  Remaking     the    Oriental    Social 

Order 161 

IX.  Nationalism  and  Church  Unity  in 

Asia 187 

X.  The  Business  Side  of  Foreign  Mis- 
sions   207 

XI.  Foreign  Missions  and  World-Wide 

Democracy 229 


ASIA  IN  THE  FAMILY  OF  NATIONS 


•  '•'.  ' 


CHAPTER  r 
ASIA  IN  THE  FAMILY  OF  NATIONS 

Perhaps  half  the  causes  of  the  European  War 
were  not  in  Europe  at  all,  but  in  Asia.  Certainly 
half  the  consequences  will  be  there.  At  the  end  of 
another  half  century  this  fact  will  be  more  evident 
than  now.  Likewise,  it  will  then  be  clear  that 
when  the  United  States  became  a  world  power  it 
also  became  an  Oriental  power.  It  is  quite  hkely 
that,  great  as  are  the  present  contributions  of 
America  to  Europe,  even  greater  will  be  her  con- 
tributions to  the  cause  of  freedom  and  justice  in 
the  East. 

The  United  States  actually  became  an  Oriental 
power  when  it  came  into  possession  of  the  Philip- 
pines, although  we  did  not  then  fully  realize  it. 
The  American  occupation  and  administration  of 
the  Islands,  in  turn,  prepared  the  way  directly  for 
the  leadership  which  President  Wilson  was  able  to 
assume  when  he  made  the  first  declaration  of 
Allied  war  aims  and  pronounced  for  the  principles 
of  self-determination.  If  the  American  policy  in 
the  Philippines  and  elsewhere  in  the  Orient  had 
been  other  than  it  was,  such  a  declaration  would 
have  had  little  influence  in  the  councils  of  Allied 
poHcy. 

Coincident  with  and  even  antedating  the  po- 
[3] 


THE  DEMOCRATIC  MOVEMENT  IN  ASIA 

litical  entrance  .of  the  United  States  into  Asia  was 
,fcte  steady  gppiwtli.  of  American  influence  in  China. 
The  Open  Door  policy  and  the  remission  of  the 
!l^x!ev  Indielmiiity.  W^re  merely  two  incidents  in  a 
long  series  of  friendly  and  disinterested  acts  which 
won  the  confidence  and  affectionate  regard  of  the 
Chinese. 

Meanwhile  the  American  traders  and  the  Amer- 
ican missionaries  were  extending  their  influence. 
They  were  relatively  few  in  numbers,  yet  potent 
in  leadership  throughout  the  entire  Eastern  Hemi- 
sphere. Neither  of  these  unofficial  representatives 
of  the  American  people  were  the  unrepresentative 
types  which  they  were  sometimes  reported  to  have 
been.  Barring  real  exceptions,  the  American  busi- 
ness man  in  the  Orient  has  been  a  clean-cut,  clean- 
living,  clean-dealing  agent.  He  has  won  respect. 
The  missionary  also  has  carried  with  him  a  typi- 
cal American  spirit,  touched  with  a  persuasive 
idealism.  He  seldom  made  enemies,  for  it  was  his 
primary  purpose  to  make  friends,  and  every  friend 
he  made  was  also  a  friend  for  the  nation  which 
had  sent  him  out  there  to  relieve  suffering,  teach 
the  illiterate,  and  enlighten  the  superstitious. 

The  combined  effect  of  these  diverse  influences 
has  been  to  elevate  the  United  States  to  an  unique 
place  in  the  estimation  of  the  Asiatic  races.  China 
became  a  republic.  The  first  republican  leaders 
had  been  bred  in  the  American  missionary  school, 
even  though  the  teacher  had  been  quite  uncon- 
scious of  the  role  which  he  was  preparing  his 
pupils  to  play.     India  demanded  Home  Rule. 

[4] 


THERE  IS  HARDLY  A  VILLAGE  IN 
ALL  CHINA  TO  WHICH  THE  NEWS- 
PAPER DOES  NOT  SOME  TIME  PEN- 
ETRATE. THESE  MEN  ARE  READING 
FROM  A  PAPER  PUBLISHED  BY  ONE 
OF  THE  POLITICAL  PARTIES  AND 
POSTED  FREELY  ON  BULLETIN 
BOARDS. 


ASIA  IN  THE  FAMILY  OF  NATIONS 

Why?  There  were  many  influences  at  work,  but 
one  must  not  overlook  a  most  important  one: 
India  had  been  observing  the  American  policy  in 
the  Philippines.  Other  nations  and  races  also 
were  stirring  when  the  European  War  came  to 
claim  their  attention  and  to  teach  them  its  les- 
sons. Now  they  are  asking:  How  does  the  war 
for  the  defense  of  the  rights  of  weak  nations 
affect  us  who  are  politically  the  weakest  of  all? 

Democracy  is  not  merely  a  catchword  of  the 
War;  it  has  become  the  watchword  of  the  world. 
The  War  has  accentuated  the  ideal  and  acceler- 
ated its  growth;  but,  long  before  the  War  began, 
the  ideal  had  thrust  down  its  roots  in  many  soils 
where  republican  institutions  were  plants  of  ex- 
otic growth. 

Asia  is  moving  toward  democracy  in  interna- 
tional affairs  and  also  toward  republican  ideals  of 
government  at  home.  Many  of  these  ideals  have 
been  borrowed  directly  from  America  or  from 
Americans.  India  has,  of  course,  drawn  impar- 
tially from  the  great  stream  of  political  idealism 
which  runs  through  our  common  English  and 
American  literature  and  history,  but  the  Filipino 
and  the  Chinese  each  has  learned  directly  from 
the  United  States. 

In  the  face  of  this  democratic  drift  of  the  Orient 
we  must  recognize  that  the  Asiatic  races  are  not 
at  all  prepared  for  many  of  the  privileges  of  self- 
determination  which  they  are  demanding  and 
which  they  have  in  part  received.  Those  who 
follow  current  Chinese  history  are  almost  in  de- 

[5] 


THE  DEMOCRATIC  MOVEMENT  IN  ASIA 

spair  for  the  future  of  the  new  republic.  England 
has  committed  herself  to  a  policy  in  India  which 
will  leave  a  huge  unfinished  task  long  after  the 
map  of  Europe  has  been  redrawn  on  lines  of 
justice  and  stability.  The  United  States  is  not 
yet  able  to  withdraw  from  the  Philippines,  and 
none  is  so  rash  as  to  prophesy  a  date  when  with- 
drawal can  be  accomplished  without  the  defeat  of 
the  very  principles  to  which  America  has  dedi- 
cated herself  in  these  far-off  lands. 

The  key  to  an  understanding  of  the  Oriental 
problem  as  it  is  and  as  it  is  likely  to  remain  for 
generations  is  the  comprehension  of  the  fact  that 
Asia  itself  is  a  unit,  which  does  not  lend  itself  to 
division  into  the  Philippine,  the  Chinese,  the  Jap- 
anese, the  Siberian,  or  the  Indian  problems.  Fur- 
thermore, Europe  and  America  are  as  much  a 
part  of  that  unity  as  are  China  and  India.  This 
unity  cannot  be  dissolved  until  the  problem  itself 
is  solved. 

All  the  nations  and  races  of  Asia  are  now 
standing  on  end  like  a  circle  of  dominoes.  If 
any  one  of  them  is  knocked  over  or  disturbed 
in  any  way,  the  resulting  commotion  is  imme- 
diately communicated  to  all  the  others.  The 
Japanese  policy  in  China  or  Siberia,  for  example, 
is  not  to  be  considered  apart  from  Home  Rule 
in  India  or  Filipino  independence,  any  more 
than  it  can  be  separated  from  the  future  of 
Malaysia  or  Russia.  But  it  is  even  more  im- 
portant for  us  to  realize  that  this  Oriental  Question 
includes  more  than  the  Orient. 

[6] 


^^^Hb  ■     j^K^^^ttk'^ 

H 

1 

^^^^^t^„ » 

^^^^Bi^^ES|l 

M 

pU^^p^'^* 

"^^^    ^    '  •  '     ■■' 

IHiMk'           .......... 

A  NEW  SPIRIT  OF  LIBERTY  HAS 
SEIZED  UPON  INDIA,  AS  THE  FREE 
STRIDE  OF  THESE  GIRLS  AT  THE 
ISABELLA  THOBURN  COLLEGE  TESTI- 
FIES. 


c    "  c     c       c 


I 


ASIA  IN  THE  FAMILY  OF  NATIONS 


If  we  think  of  Asia  as  a  circle  we  find  elbowing 
each  other  on  its  circumference  the  United 
States,  England,  Holland,  France,  and  Russia, 
as  well  as  Japan,  Korea,  the  Philippines,  Malaysia, 
and  India.  I  omit  China  from  the  list  of  nations 
on  the  circumference  because  she  is  really  the 
very  center  of  the  whole  problem.  The  position 
of  China  at  present  is  so  unique  that  one  is  war- 
ranted in  saying  that  as  China  goes  in  the  next 
few  decades  so  goes  the  Orient,  and  perhaps 
the  world,  for  the  next  few  centuries. 

Notice  the  line-up  on  this  circle:  Russia  at 
present  a  passive  quantity;  Japan  still  an  im- 
perialistic power;  France  with  a  not  very 
creditable  colonial  policy  and  a  very  discreditable 
diplomatic  policy  in  South  China;  Holland  with 
none  too  fine  a  score  for  humanity  and  justice 
in  Java;  the  United  States  embarked  upon  a 
policy  of  administration  and  control  which  has 
already  extended  to  the  Filipinos  a  greater  de- 
gree of  autonomy  than  was  ever  before  given 
to  a  subject  race;  Great  Britain  now  introducing 
revolutionary  measures  in  India  which  put  her 
in  line  with  the  American  policy  in  the  Philip- 
pines. Then  notice  that  the  political  conditions 
in  large  parts  of  the  rich  Malay  Peninsula  are 
as  yet  almost  entirely  unmade,  that  Siam  is  as 
plastic  as  wax,  that  China  is  as  fragile  as  a  cracked 
lacquer  bowl. 

Hitherto  the  Oriental  question  has  been  ap- 
proached by  Americans  chiefly  from  three  dis- 
tinctly different    angles.      The    statesman,  who 

[7] 


THE  DEMOCRATIC  MOVEMENT  IN  ASIA 

has  sometimes  been  merely  an  international 
politician,  has  sought  to  steer  a  course  which 
would  keep  the  United  States  from  being  involved 
in  vexatious  international  disputes.  The  banker 
and  business  man  has  surveyed  Asia  as  a  field 
for  exploitation,  where  risks  were  extra  hazardous 
and  where  other  nations  were  already  well  en- 
trenched. The  foreign  missionary,  and  those  who 
sent  him  to  his  task,  defined  his  transcendent 
purpose  as  one  of  redemption  of  souls,  in  which 
the  Hindu,  Mohammedan,  Buddhist,  Confucian- 
ist,  or  Shintoist  would  be  converted  to  Chris- 
tianity. Meanwhile,  the  great  majority  of 
citizens  had  no  interest  whatever  in  the  prosecu- 
tion of  any  one  of  these  three  purposes. 

Many  factors  must  combine  or  cooperate  to 
lift  the  races  of  the  Orient  to  the  point  where 
they  can  meet,  on  democratic  terms,  the  powers 
of  the  West  at  the  council  tables  of  the  world. 
The  purpose  of  this  book  does  not  include  more 
than  the  enumeration  of  some  of  these  factors, 
nor  is  it  the  desire  to  claim  more  importance 
for  any  single  one  than  the  facts  warrant.  It 
must  be  perfectly  clear,  however,  that  the  tra- 
ditional attitude  of  the  European  toward  the 
Asiatic  races  must  give  way  before  new  policies 
and  methods,  in  keeping  with  the  ideals  for  which 
the  war  in  Europe  is  being  fought. 

The  United  States  has  now  become  a  world 
power  and  has  assumed  a  place  of  leadership 
among  the  nations  which  will  involve  more  and 
more  concern  for  the  political  welfare  of  Asia. 

[8] 


WHEN  THE  AMERICANS  CAME  TO 
THE  PHILIPPINES  THEY  INTRODUCED 
A  NEW  SPIRIT  AS  WELL  AS  A  NEW 
THEORY  OF  GOVERNMENT.  BASE- 
BALL DISPLACED  COCK  FIGHTING  AS 
THE       NATIONAL      SPORT.  ALMOST 

EVERY  ALLEY    IN    MANILA    NOW  HAS 
ITS  BASEBALL  TEAM. 


ASIA  IN  THE  FAMILY  OF  NATIONS 

This  new  relation  to  the  backward  races  will 
in  turn  demand  that  the  United  States  shall 
assume  its  proportionate  responsibihty,  which 
must  be  very  large,  for  such  economic  develop- 
ment of  these  peoples  as  will  be  necessary  to 
fit  them  for  international  partnership  in  pro- 
duction, trade,  and  politics.  Meanwhile  the 
missionary  must  view  his  task  from  the  wider 
angle,  and  see  himself  as  a  national  representative 
and  as  an  international  agent  in  preparing  na- 
tions and  races  for  the  responsibilities  and  priv- 
ileges of  self-determination. 

Hitherto  the  business  man  has  seen  in  Asia 
merely  a  field  for  exploitation;  the  missionary 
has  been  primarily  impelled  by  the  urge  to  preach 
the  Gospel  to  all  nations.  These  two  motives 
can  no  longer  be  considered  exclusive  of  or 
opposed  to  each  other.  Both  business  man  and 
missionary  are  really  engaged  in  a  common  task 
to  develop  the  latent  resources — physical,  intel- 
lectual, and  moral — of  backward  peoples,  without 
robbing  them  of  any  thing  or  any  quality  essen- 
tial to  the  preservation  of  their  independent 
national  life.  The  American  people  must  replace 
the  not  uncommon  distrust  of  the  American 
business  man  who  does  business  abroad  with 
confidence  that  he  has  not  lost  his  integrity 
merely  because  he  has  chosen  to  be  in  business 
where  his  neighbors  are  unable  to  observe  his 
actions.  They  must  see  in  him  a  man  who  is 
rendering  an  important  international  service. 
Likewise,   we  must  recognize  that,   in  addition 

[9] 


THE  DEMOCRATIC  MOVEMENT  IN  ASIA 

to  the  religious  imperative  which  has  projected 
foreign  missions  into  the  non-Christian  world  for 
more  than  a  century,  there  is  now  the  inter- 
national imperative  which  the  immediacy  of  the 
Oriental  problem  has  revealed,  although  it  would 
be  regrettable  if  the  missionary  were  to  lose  his 
religious  idealism  in  proportion  as  he  becomes 
conscious  of  the  immense  economic,  social,  and 
even  political  consequences  of  his  work. 

The  missionary,  as  an  interpreter,  is  extremely 
valuable.  He  is  constantly  explaining  and  illus- 
trating the  American  people  to  his  constituents. 
To  most  of  his  neighbors  he  is  first  an  American, 
and  only  secondarily  a  missionary.  His  letters 
about  his  work,  addressed  to  the  constituency 
at  home  which  supports  him,  are  an  invaluable 
medium  for  transforming  parochial  Americans 
into  internationally-minded  citizens.  When  he 
opens  a  school  he  succeeds  to  the  honorable 
estate  of  teacher  among  peoples  who  have  always 
given  their  greatest  reverence  to  wise  men  and 
sages.  His  hospital  creates  infinite  good  will. 
His  superior  education  and  his  altruistic  purposes 
immediately  elevate  him  to  a  place  of  leadership 
in  matters  of  social  reform  and  not  unfrequently 
of  government.  He  creates  new  markets  and 
new  industries  of  immense  direct  and  indirect 
value  to  international  trade. 

Meanwhile,  his  entire  work  becomes  an  under- 
pinning for  the  new  civilization  which  alone  will 
admit  the  backward  races  to  democratic  fellow- 
ship with  the  Western  nations.  The  missionary's 
[10] 


ASIA  IN  THE  FAMILY  OF  NATIONS 

influence  is  all  the  greater  because  actually  he 
has  no  relation  whatever  to  government,  politics, 
or  commerce,  and  is  controlled  only  by  motives 
which  admit  no  other  purpose  than  to  elevate 
the  people  for  their  own  good,  by  emancipating 
them  from  their  spiritual  bondage. 

It  is  plain,  then,  that  merely  an  enlightened 
self-interest  on  the  part  of  the  United  States 
is  quite  sufficient  to  justify  the  presence  of  the 
American  missionary  among  these  Asiatic  races. 


[11] 


THE  UNITED  STATES  IN  ASIA 


CHAPTER  n 
THE  UNITED  STATES  IN  ASIA 

To  a  degree  not  at  all  realized  by  most  Amer- 
icans the  United  States  has  already  become  an 
Oriental  power,  or,  if  one  prefers,  a  Western 
power  with  tremendous  commercial,  political,  and 
moral  leadership  in  Asia. 

Not  long  ago  the  Ford  general  sales-manager 
dropped  into  Bombay  and  found  the  trade  in 
a  panic.  The  police  commissioner  had  recently 
purchased  a  new  motor  car,  British  made,  one 
of  those  fine  machines  which  England  used  to 
delight  to  make  before  the  War.  It  had  seven- 
teen coats  of  varnish  and  an  engine  which  would 
run  ten  years  without  developing  a  knock — ^you 
know  the  kind.  The  commissioner  ran  his  car 
around  for  a  few  days  and  came  quickly  to  the 
conclusion  that  he  was  quite  an  authority  on 
automobiles.  His  next  conviction,  deduced  from 
an  admiration  of  his  own  machine,  was  that 
the  American  flivver  was  entirely  unsafe.  Forth- 
with he  drew  up  a  recommendation  that  the 
Fords  be  deprived  of  their  licenses  as  taxis. 

The  sales-manager  called  on  the  commissioner. 

Yes,  the  official  mind  was  made  up.     The  car 

had  been  examined;  it  was  unsafe.     But,  being 

as  good  a  sport  as  are  most  of  his  countrymen, 

[15  ] 


THE  DEMOCRATIC  MOVEMENT  IN  ASIA 

he  agreed  to  hold  up  the  recommendation  until 
the  following  Saturday,  when  the  sales-manager 
promised  to  give  a  public  demonstration  of  his 
far-famed  contrivance.  On  the  appointed  day, 
by  official  permission,  a  platform  four  feet  high 
was  erected  on  the  Maidan.  It  was  announced, 
in  ways  not  novel  to  American  publicity  men, 
that  there  would  be  a  public  test  and  demon- 
stration of  the  American  car.  Needless  to  say, 
the  crowd  was  there,  including  the  police  com- 
missioner. 

The  American  drove  his  car  out  upon  the 
field  and  up  on  to  the  platform.  He  jumped  out 
and  tinkered  with  it  a  moment  for  dramatic 
effect.  Then  he  backed  off,  loaded  up  with  a 
crowd  of  curiosity-eaten  Marathis,  threw  in  his 
clutch,  gave  the  engine  some  more  gas,  drove 
up  on  the  platform,  off  the  other  side,  landed 
in  good  order,  and  rolled  proudly  across  the 
field  through  an  aisle  of  dumb-stricken  Indians. 
There  was  never  any  renewal  of  the  proposal 
to  bar  this  or  any  other  American  car  from  the 
streets.  Such  methods  of  doing  business  out- 
picturesque  even  the  picturesque  Orient.  They 
do  not  add  greatly  to  the  popularity  of  the 
American  among  the  other  foreigners,  but  they 
do  appeal  tremendously  to  the  natives. 

"America  must  be  the  sun  and  moon  to  the 
Orient,"  said  one  of  India's  greatest  industrial 
and  financial  leaders  to  me  not  long  ago.  It  is 
the  kind  of  statement  which  I  should  expect  to 
hear  in  China.  One  might  possibly  gather  up 
[16] 


I 


THE  UNITED  STATES  IN  ASIA 


such  a  remark  in  Manila  or  in  Singapore,  but 
when  one  hears  it  in  Bombay,  it  becomes  ex- 
tremely surprising  and  significant. 

The  United  States  has  entered  upon,  without 
seeking,  although  not  without  some  preparation, 
an  active  leadership  in  the  affairs  of  Asia.  This 
leadership,  while  active  only  in  the  sense  that 
the  Asiatic  races  have  accepted  it  even  though 
it  was  not  directly  offered  to  them,  is  none  the 
less  very  real.  It  is  more  political  and  moral 
than  commercial,  although  American  business  in- 
terests are  rapidly  extending  themselves.  Its 
beginnings  date  back  to  the  time  when  the 
United  States  followed  up  the  occupation  of  the 
Philippines  with  shiploads  of  school-teachers  and 
the  promise  of  ultimate  independence.  A  new 
and  hitherto  unknown  political  and  colonial  theory 
was  thereby  introduced  into  the  Orient  and  its 
influence  has  been  most  pervasive.  I  have  seen 
a  letter  written  by  a  most  distinguished  Indian 
to  the  prince  of  a  well-known  native  state  sug- 
gesting, in  response  to  a  request  for  advice,  that 
the  prince  create  a  post  of  Councilor,  "such  as 
Mr.  Lansing  held  before  he  became  Secretary  of 
State.  This  person  should,  under  the  present 
circumstances,  be  a  foreigner,  preferably  an 
American."  Ex-Governor  Forbes  of  the  Philip- 
pines was  suggested  as  a  possibility  for  the  place. 
"It  would  be  the  duty  of  such  a  person  to  com- 
pare the  system  of  a  given  state  with  that  pre- 
vailing in  the  Philippines  or  Hawaii.  He  would 
see  the  enormous  work  for  good  done  by  the 
[17] 


THE  DEMOCRATIC  MOVEMENT  IN  ASIA 

Americans  and  would  ask  what  prevents  a  rep- 
etition of  that  work  in  India." 

"I  am  a  nationalist  in  sympathy,"  said  a  dis- 
tinguished gentleman  of  Bombay,  "although  I 
do  not  join  in  the  slander  that  England  impover- 
ishes India.  There  is  an  old  statement  that 
our  country  is  being  drained  of  her  wealth.  Let 
us  assume  that  seventy-five  millions  of  dollars 
goes  to  England  in  trade.  This  is  hardly  one 
dollar  per  family,  per  year.  Account  is  not 
taken  of  the  fact  that  if  the  Enghsh  civilians  who 
come  to  India  were  cattle  they  would  be  valued 
at  enough  per  head,  as  imports,  to  offset  the 
other  account.  In  return  for  the  Home  Office 
charges  which  go  for  administration  and  pen- 
sions, India  is  receiving  services  which  are  im- 
measurably great. 

"Nevertheless,  when  I  visited  the  Philippine 
Islands  I  found  that  the  people  are  far  more 
prosperous  than  the  Indians.  America  has  taken 
a  new  spirit  to  the  Islands  which  the  conservative 
Briton  has  not  brought  here.  The  Filipinos  have 
had  revealed  to  them  new  ways  of  developing 
their  resources.  When  I  asked  Americans  in 
Manila  to  explain  why  the  Islands  have  pros- 
pered so  much,  they  were  unable  to  do  so.  I 
believe  the  cause  to  be  the  American  spirit." 

"The  chief  cause  of  irritation  in  India,"  said 
Sir  Stanley  Reed,  editor  of  the  Times  of  India 
(Bombay),  "has  been  that  England  has  been  so 
slow  in  granting  simple  and  urgent  requests. 
There  is  so  much  red  tape,  so  much  delay,  so 
[18] 


THE  AMERICAN  AUTOMOBILE  HAS 
BEEN  WELL  INTRODUCED  INTO  INDIA 
WHERE  IT  18  VERY  POPULAR  BE- 
CAUSE OF  ITS  CHEAPNESS.  ONE 
CANNOT  BE  MANY  HOURS  ON  ANY 
GOOD  ROAD  WITHOUT  SEEING  AT 
LEAST   ONE   AMERICAN   CAR. 


I 


THE  UNITED  STATES  IN  ASIA 


much  ponderous  machinery  to  move,  that  when 
India  does  receive  what  she  asks  for,  the  grant  has 
been  so  long  delayed  that  the  favor  seems  to  have 
been  given  grudgingly.  Thus  England  loses  the 
good  will  which  she  might  have  gained."  Many 
people  confirmed  this  statement.  "Our  great 
complaint,"  said  B.  J.  Padshah,  financial  advisor 
to  the  great  Tata  group  of  industries,  "is  that 
England  has  been  so  conservative;  so  unwilling 
to  adopt  new  ideas."  Then  he  added,  with  a 
twinkle  in  his  eye,  "It  seems  funny,  doesn't  it, 
that  the  Indian  should  criticize  the  Englishman 
for  being  conservative." 

In  China  the  United  States  is  regarded  not 
only  as  a  powerful  friend,  but  also  as  an  ideal. 

In  1861  President  Lincoln  appointed  Anson 
Burlingame  of  Massachusetts  to  represent  the 
United  States  in  Peking.  He  immediately  pro- 
posed to  his  diplomatic  colleagues  "a  policy  of 
cooperation,  an  effort  to  substitute  fair  diplo- 
matic action  in  China  for  force."  Professor 
Willis  Fletcher  Johnson,  in  his  "History  of 
American  Diplomacy,"  records  the  story  of  how 
six  years  later  Burlingame  was  released  from  his 
post,  presented  by  the  Emperor  with  a  com- 
mission engrossed  on  yellow  silk,  and  sent  out 
with  almost  unHmited  powers  to  "attend  to 
every  question  arising  between  China  and  the 
western  nations."  He  made  a  treaty  between 
the  United  States  and  China  and  then  began  a 
tour  of  the  European  capitals  in  the  interests 
of  his  new  client,  dying  suddenly  in  Petrograd. 
[19] 


THE  DEMOCRATIC  MOVEMENT  IN  ASIA 

From  that  period  until  now,  Chinese  respect 
for  and  confidence  in  the  United  States  has 
grown,  with  but  slight  set-backs,  until  now  it 
is  enough  to  make  the  most  thoughtless  American 
hold  up  his  head  a  little  higher,  and  yet  tread 
softly. 

I  was  in  China  during  those  weeks  of  debate 
as  to  whether  she  should  send  home  the  German 
minister  and  enter  the  War.  The  Chinese  were 
bewildered  in  the  midst  of  the  diplomatic  tangles. 
They  could  not  understand  what  it  was  all 
about.  German  influences  were  very  active. 
Japan  did  not  favor  the  move,  at  least  not  in 
the  earlier  weeks  of  the  discussion.  China  had 
some  old  scores  against  nearly  all  of  the  Allies. 
On  the  whole,  their  longer  record  in  China  was 
less  inspiring  of  confidence  than  even  that  of 
Germany.  China  could  not  see  why  she  ought 
to  enter  the  War  and  yet  the  United  States  recom- 
mended it.    That  was  sufficient  to  turn  the  tide. 

"We  know,"  said  very  many  Chinese  to  me, 
in  many  different  parts  of  the  country,  "that 
America  has  no  sinister  motive."  China  would 
not  have  entered  the  War  were  it  not  for  her 
confidence  in  the  United  States. 

The  Chinese  like  American  candor,  even  though 
they  prefer  for  themselves  more  devious  ways 
of  address.  China  is  still  smiling  over  the  re- 
mark of  an  American  engineer  made  in  the 
Russian  Chancery  at  Peking.  This  gentleman 
had  been  sent  out  to  build  railways  which  are 
being  financed  by  an  American  banking  corpora- 
[20] 


THE  UNITED  STATES  IN  ASIA 

tion.  He  is  one  of  our  real  native  products,  the 
kind  which  comes  from  Minnesota,  never  went 
to  school  after  he  was  eight  years  old,  and  learned 
his  profession  by  swinging  a  pick,  although  one 
would  never  guess  it  to  talk  with  him.  He  had 
been  having  trouble  in  finding  routes  which  had 
not  already  been  preempted  by  some  one  else. 
One  day  he  went  over  to  the  Legation  Quarter 
to  learn  how  he  stood  with  reference  to  Russian 
concessions. 

"This,"  said  the  attache,  "is  a  map  of  China 
colored  to  show  the  various  spheres  of  influence." 
The  engineer  studied  it  a  moment.  Shantung  and 
Southern  Manchuria  had  one  color  for  Japan, 
Northern  Manchuria  and  Mongolia  had  another 
for  Russia,  the  Yangtse  Valley  was  tinted  for 
England,  and  liberal  sections  of  the  South  ap- 
peared to  be  mortgaged  to  France.  The  map 
looked  like  a  Joseph's  coat.  The  Chinese  like 
the  direct  and  even  abrupt  way  in  which  the 
American  brushed  aside  the  niceties  of  diplo- 
matic language  and  exclaimed,  "Then  where  in 

is  China .f^"     The  question  was,  and  is  and 

will  be,  until  the  peace  conference  settles  it,  a 
pertinent  one. 

Not  long  ago  I  happened  to  be  at  a  semi- 
pubhc  dinner  in  Shanghai,  at  which  Dr.  P.  W. 
Kuo  of  the  Normal  Teachers'  College  of  Nanking 
made  an  address.  He  had  just  returned  from  a 
government  mission  to  the  Philippines,  where  he 
had  inspected  the  school  system.  Turning  to 
the  Americans  present,  he  said  with  great  earnest- 
[21] 


THE  DEMOCRATIC  MOVEMENT  IN  ASIA 

ness:  "You  Americans  have  every  reason  to  be 
proud  of  your  country's  work  in  the  Philippines." 
He  also  expressed  the  greatest  sympathy  with 
the  Filipino  desire  for  complete  independence. 

Each  year  a  steady  stream  of  Indemnity  stu- 
dents returns  to  China.  There  are  usually  more 
than  sixteen  hundred  Chinese  students  in  school 
in  the  United  States.  They  will  all  return  raw, 
inexperienced,  not  very  useful  at  first,  but  fairly 
saturated  with  American  social  and  political 
ideals. 

The  contribution  of  the  United  States  to  Asia 
has  been  a  gift  of  idealism.  This  idealism  has 
most  recently  found  expression  in  President  Wil- 
son's definition  of  our  war  aims,  but  it  had 
already  been  fanned  into  a  flame  in  the  East  by 
the  breeziness  of  Uncle  Sam,  and  its  sparks  were 
scattered  all  over  Asia.  These  sparks  found 
plenty  of  tinder  for  the  fire  on  ground  already 
prepared  by  the  penetration  of  the  trader  and 
the  missionary,  and  by  grievances  of  the  people 
arising  out  of  the  arrogance  and  rapacity  of  the 
various  Powers.  Incidentally,  the  United  States 
has  backed  up  its  idealism  in  the  Philippines  by 
the  investment  of  a  great  deal  of  money  and 
devotion.  It  has  also  recorded  many  times  its 
intention  of  retiring  from  the  Orient  as  soon  as 
the  Filipinos  demonstrate  their  ability  to  go 
their  way  unaided.  But  the  success  of  the  Amer- 
ican experiment  in  the  Islands  is  entirely  con- 
tingent upon  whether  it  can  eventually  be  re- 
peated elsewhere  in  Asia.  If  the  republican 
[22] 


I 


THE  UNITED  STATES  IN  ASIA 


xperiment  fails,  for  example,  in  China,  either 
because  of  aggression  from  without  or  through 
internal  weakness,  no  part  of  Asia  can  be  safe 
for  democracy.  If  China  were  to  become  the 
feed,  fuel,  and  mineral  box  of  any  imperialistic 
or  autocratic  power,  the  democratic  drift  of  the 
Orient  would  be  blocked. 

If  the  Oriental  problem  did  not  include  a  move- 
ment toward  democracy  it  would  be  much  simpler. 
The  Philippines  have  most  nearly  arrived  at 
their  destination,  but  Great  Britain  is  initiating 
measures  in  India  which  will  throw  heavier 
responsibilities  for  self-government  upon  the  In- 
dians than  they  have  ever  had  before.  London 
seems  disposed  to  make  changes  much  faster 
than  the  foreigners  in  India  believe  wise.  One 
must  also  remember  that  during  the  war  hundreds 
of  thousands  of  Indian  soldiers  and  Chinese 
coolies  have  been  transported  abroad  and  given 
a  world  view  which  is  likely  to  put  them  even 
more  than  before  on  the  side  of  self-determina- 
tion for  their  national  affairs. 

Asia,  outside  of  Japan,  is  already  committed 
to  republican  experiments  which  can  be  success- 
ful only  under  the  most  favorable  conditions. 
The  Philippines  and  India  have  been  governed 
by  experts.  We  must  be  prepared  to  see  a  lower- 
ing of  efficiency  as  public  affairs  are  passed  over 
to  republican  control.  Such  is  the  price  of  de- 
mocracy. A  mobilizing  of  the  forces  of  the 
world  to  make  democracy  even  respectable  may 
yet  be  necessary. 

[23] 


THE  DEMOCRATIC  MOVEMENT  IN  ASIA 

The  plain  facts  of  the  ease  are  that  Asia, 
speaking  broadly,  is  not  at  all  ready  for  the 
exercise  of  the  rights  which  she  is  demanding 
and  has  already  in  part  received.  China  is  from 
ninety-two  to  ninety-seven  per  cent  illiterate; 
India,  averaging  the  ten  per  cent  literacy  of  the 
men  with  one  per  cent  for  the  women,  is  in  no 
better  condition.  The  desire  for  Home  Rule  is 
now  reaching  down  into  the  villages  of  India,  but 
the  ryot,  in  the  same  breath  in  which  he  assures 
one  that  he  wants  it,  will  say,  "But  what  is  Home 
Rule,  any  way  .f^"  In  his  mind  it  is  associated  only 
with  the  improvement  of  his  economic  condition. 
It  may  mean  that  he  can  have  a  pukka  house  of 
brick,  instead  of  his  mud  hut.  The  forty  million 
outcastes  fear  that  they  will  have  their  law- 
suits tried  before  a  Brahmin  judge,  and  are  al- 
ready protesting  against  the  proposed  new  order. 
The  present  maladministration  in  China  is 
increasing,  not  decreasing,  the  burdens  of  the 
people. 

The  following  incident,  told  to  me  by  a  mis- 
sionary in  one  of  the  remote  cities  of  China, 
gives  one  several  angles  of  vision  on  the  present 
internal  economy  of  the  new  republic.  In  a 
certain  city  the  magistrate's  yamen  was  burned, 
no  cause  for  the  fire  being  evident.  The  next 
day  the  magistrate  called  together  all  the  wealthy 
men  of  the  city  and  said, 

"You  know  who  burned  my  yamen  last  night." 

The  men  protested  that  they  did  not  know. 

"Well,  at  any  rate,  it  seems  peculiar  to  me 
[24] 


THE  UNITED  STATES  IN  ASIA 

that  my  yamen  was  the  only  building  to  bum. 
It  looks  suspicious.  I  believe  that  you  men  are 
in  secret  league  with  the  bandits  and  that  you 
told  them  to  burn  me  out." 

Again  the  men  protested,  but  the  magistrate 
continued : 

"Here  are  plans  and  specifications  for  a  new 
yamen.  I  shall  expect  you  to  see  that  it  is  built 
immediately.  Otherwise  I  shall  know  that  you 
are  in  league  with  the  brigands  and  shall  report 
you  as  such  to  the  miUtary  governor  of  the 
province." 

The  new  yamen  was  erected  forthwith. 

A  few  weeks  later  the  missionary  was  asked 
by  the  military  governor  to  go  up  into  the  moim- 
tains  and  arrange  a  compromise  with  the  brigands, 
by  which  the  latter  would  agree  to  lay  down 
their  arms  and  return  to  peaceful  life.  The  mil- 
itary authorities  have  been  utterly  unable  to 
cope  with  the  situation,  so  that  for  several  years 
anarchy  had  prevailed.  The  missionary  exhorted 
the  robbers  to  forsake  their  evil  ways,  whereupon 
they  replied: 

"But  we  are  not  the  worst  brigands.  We 
steal  and  hold  for  ransom;  that  is  true,  but  we 
do  not  eat  government  rice  while  we  are  doing  it." 

"What  do  you  mean.?"  asked  the  missionary, 
mystified.  Then  they  recalled  to  his  mind  the 
magistrate  who  had  recouped  his  loss  by  intimi- 
dating the  rich  men.  They  mentioned  haK  a 
dozen  other  stories  of  a  similar  kind. 

"If  he  steals  and  loots  the  people,"  suggested 
[25] 


THE  DEMOCRATIC  MOVEMENT  IN  ASIA 

the  brigands,  "why  cannot  we  do  the  same?  Go 
tell  the  governor  that  we  will  lay  down  our  arms 
when  he  provides  us  with  honest  magistrates." 

The  missionary  reported  the  interview  to  the 
governor,  confirming  the  truth  of  the  assertion 
that  the  magistrates  of  that  region  were  the 
most  accomplished  brigands  with  whom  he  would 
have  to  deal.  "Well,"  replied  the  governor,  con- 
fidentially, "you  tell  the  brigands  to  go  down  and 
kill  that  magistrate  and  loot  his  yamen,  and  I 
will  overlook  the  matter  entirely." 

While  this  story  illustrates  extreme  conditions, 
I  know  at  least  a  dozen  more,  revealing  similar 
chaos  in  widely  scattered  districts. 

If  China  can  be  guaranteed  an  open  sea  and 
smooth  water  in  which  to  practice  the  new  art 
of  republican  navigation,  and  can  have  competent 
pilots,  she  will  probably  yet  achieve  a  stable 
government.  She  will  need  help,  political  and 
economic  as  well  as  educational,  but  there  is  no 
evidence  that  the  Chinese,  individually,  are  a 
degenerate  race.  If  one  takes  a  Chinese,  a  Jap- 
anese, a  Malay,  and  an  Indian  and  sets  them 
down  in  the  Malay  States,  which  are  rich  beyond 
the  dreams  of  avarice,  and  underpopulated,  the 
Chinese  is  almost  certain  to  rise  superior  to  all 
the  others.  The  Chinese  element  in  the  Philip- 
pines is  so  virile  and  so  successful  that  one  may 
even  be  able  to  put  in  a  fair  defense  for  the 
American  policy  of  Chinese  exclusion  in  the 
Islands,  on  the  ground  that  the  Filipino  must 
be  protected.  The  Dutch  in  Java  have  been 
[26] 


THE  UNITED  STATES  IN  ASIA 

forced  to  establish  a  discriminating  headtax  on 
Chinese  immigrants,  because  they  are  so  much 
superior  to  the  Malays  that  the  latter  go  under 
in  the  competition. 

The  Asiatic  question  is  greatly  complicated 
by  the  presence  of  a  formidable  color-conscious- 
ness and  a  growing  racial  pride.  This  pride, 
which  first  crystaUized  when  Japan  defeated 
Russia,  has  been  greatly  increased  during  the 
years  of  the  European  war.  The  nations  and 
races  of  the  Orient  are  one  in  their  desire  to  be 
delivered  from  European  meddling  and  super- 
vision. 

"We  are  wondering,"  they  say,  "how  the 
principle  of  the  rights  of  weak  nations  as  applied 
to  Belgium  is  to  be  applied  to  us." 

Perhaps  the  color  question  lies  at  the  bottom 
of  the  entire  Oriental  problem.  The  Oriental 
feels  that  he  has  been  discriminated  against  be- 
cause his  skin  is  tinted.  He  is  irritated  at  the 
snobbery  of  the  white  race.  Consequently  he 
likes  the  Jones  Bill  which  opened  so  many  doors 
to  his  dusky  cousins.  It  is  the  color  question 
which  gives  Japan  what  hold  she  has  on  Asia. 

Most  Europeans  in  the  Orient  have  a  very 
simple  philosophy  on  this  subject.  As  an  Amer- 
ican doctor,  loaned  to  the  British  Government 
for  some  special  medical  research  in  the  Federated 
Malay  States,  expressed  it  to  me,  "I  believe  that 
the  white  race  is  bound  to  rule  the  world."  If 
pressed  a  little  farther  he  would  probably  have 
admitted  that  he  referred  to  that  part  of  the 
[27] 


THE  DEMOCRATIC  MOVEMENT  IN  ASIA 

white  race  which  is  Anglo-Saxon.  When  I 
quoted  this  reply  to  an  Indian  gentleman  with 
whom  I  happened  to  be  discussing  the  subject, 
he  sighed  and  remarked: 

"I  hope  there  will  never  have  to  be  a  test  of 
this  claim.  The  Oriental  is  not  by  nature  a 
cruel  person,  although  many  people  say  he  is, 
but  if  the  world  were  ever  to  line  up  on  the  color 
question  and  fight  it  out,  there  would  be  trouble 
indeed." 

One  may  see  to  how  great  an  extent  the  United 
States  is  idealized  by  the  following  remark, 
made  by  an  Indian  who  has  been  around  the 
world  many  times: 

"The  race  and  color-prejudice  out  here  are 
bad.  Of  course  every  one  knows  that  the  English- 
man is  caste-ridden.  But  in  America  it  is  dif- 
ferent. When  I  was  there  Mr.  Wilson  invited 
me  to  come  to  see  him." 

An  Indian  Judge  of  the  High  Court,  from 
whom  I  was  seeking  to  draw  out  a  statement 
as  to  the  extent  of  India's  loyalty  to  the  Govern- 
ment during  the  War,  after  assuring  me  on  that 
point,  remarked  speculatively: 

"India  sees  no  European  master  whom  she 
would  be  willing  to  have  in  exchange  for  England, 
but  if  it  were  a  choice  between  England  and  Japan 
I  am  not  so  sure  what  India  might  say.  She 
might  conclude  that  it  would  be  better  to  have 
a  purely  Oriental  administration.  She  might 
say,  *  Japan  has  taken  her  religion  from  us;  we 
would  understand  each  other.'  " 
[28] 


JAPAN  IS  NOW  AT  THE  PARTING  OF 
THE  WAYS,  CHOOSING  BETWEEN  PO- 
LITICAL IMPERIALISM  AND  ECONOMIC 
EXPANSION.  THE  WAR  HAS  SET 
JAPAN  FORWARD  INDUSTRIALLY  BY 
MANY  DECADES.  THESE  GIRLS  ARE 
AT  WORK  IN  A  SILK  MILL,  THE  EN- 
TIRE PRODUCT  OF  WHICH  IS  SOLD 
IN  THE  UNITED  STATES. 


THE  UNITED  STATES  IN  ASIA 

I  faithfully  followed  up  this  question  wherever 
possible  and  am  bound  to  conclude  that  this 
judge  was  not  voicing  the  feelings  of  many  of 
his  countrymen.  Indeed  there  is  almost  as  much 
race  prejudice  in  India,  where  the  Japanese  and 
the  Indian  meet,  as  there  is  between  the  tinted 
and  the  white  races  the  world  over.  "These 
Japanese  whom  one  sees  by  the  hundreds  in 
Bombay  are  such  dirty  people,"  remarked  a 
Mohammedan  lady  to  me  in  disgust.  As  a  matter 
of  fact,  the  Japanese  are  the  most  cleanly  folk 
in  the  world.  And  yet  there  is  an  active  prop- 
aganda being  carried  on,  at  least  in  Shanghai, 
to  draw  Indian,  Chinese,  and  Japanese  leaders 
together  on  a  color  platform.  One  of  the  deep 
questions  which  the  peace  conference  will  have 
to  settle,  if  not  in  theory,  at  least  in  fact,  is 
whether  there  are  in  justice  any  priority  rights 
among  the  shades  of  the  human  spectrum. 

The  stubbornness  with  which  many  Chinese 
opposed  the  entrance  of  China  into  "the  white 
man's  quarrel"  witnesses  to  the  existence  of  a 
similar  desire  to  shake  off  the  European  influences 
in  China.  The  growth  of  this  sentiment  tends 
to  throw  China  into  the  arms  of  Japan,  which 
has  already  so  skilfully  and  so  repeatedly  de- 
feated or  outmaneuvered  the  Europeans.  If  Japan 
had  not  so  botched  her  diplomacy,  this  move- 
ment of  "Asia  for  the  Asiatics"  would  now  be 
much  farther  advanced  than  it  is.  Even  so,  I 
have  heard  not  a  few  enlightened  and  influential 
Chinese  say: 

[29] 


THE  DEMOCRATIC  MOVEMENT  IN  ASIA 

"China  would  be  far  better  off  if  Japan  were 
to  take  the  country  over;  we  have  done  so  badly 
in  our  attempt  at  republican  government  that 
we  do  not  deserve  to  govern  ourselves." 

There  is  a  deep  vein  of  pessimism  in  the  Chinese 
nature  which  accounts  for  some  of  this  despair, 
but  the  fact  remains  that  China  is  quite  incapable 
of  steering  her  own  junk,  except  in  the  open  sea 
and  in  very  smooth  water.     She  is  in  the  grip 
of  a  militarist  party,  the  leaders  of  which  are 
commonly    known    in    China    as    "well-dressed 
coolies."     These  military  leaders  are  quite  gen- 
erally   pro-Japanese.      The    Chinese    system    of 
government   provides   that   each   province   shall 
have  two  governors  of  coordinate  powers,   one 
civil  and  one  military.     The  military  governor 
has  in  his  army  the  only  force  in  the  province 
which  can  be  quickly  mobilized  to  support  an 
opinion.     Consequently  the  military  governor  al- 
ways has  the  upper  hand.    He  can  control  every 
election,  suppress  any  publication,  and  determine 
every  pohcy.    Until  recently  China  has  assigned 
the  soldier  to  the  lowest  seat  in  her  scale  of 
social  order.     The  soldiers  have  been  drawn  al- 
most exclusively   from  the  lower  classes.     The 
result  is  that,  so  far  as  matters  governmental  are 
concerned,   the  social  order  of  China  has  been 
inverted  and  the  soldier,   who  was  the  lowest, 
and  still  is  among  the  most  ignorant,  finds  him- 
self now  the  highest.     If  the  Chinese  Repubhc 
possesses  any  considerable  group  of  able  leaders, 
then  most  of  them  are  in  hiding. 
[30] 


THE  UNITED  STATES  IN  ASIA 

The  English-speaking  Chinese  are,  in  the 
main,  opposed  to  Japan;  the  mass  is  inarticulate. 
The  Chinese  seem  to  be  unanimous  only  on  two 
points:  they  do  not  desire  a  restoration  of  the 
monarchy,  and  they  will  not  willingly  accept  a 
return  to  the  old  days  of  "spheres  of  influence" 
and  European  meddling.  Beyond  this  China  is, 
for  the  present,  practically  the  unknown  quantity, 
or  the  variable,  in  the  Asiatic  equation. 

It  is  very  difficult  to  discuss  the  relation  of 
the  Japanese  to  the  Oriental  problem  and  at  the 
same  time  to  escape  the  charge  that  one  has 
abandoned  a  judicial  frame  of  mind.  In  spite 
of  its  centuries  of  history,  the  Japanese  Empire 
of  today  is  in  a  period  of  adolescence.  It  is 
filled  with  conflicting  emotions,  which  will  not 
be  quickly  unified  and  which  prevent  any  fixed 
classification  in  international  affairs  such  as  both 
friends  and  enemies  of  the  nation  demand.  It 
is  even  difficult  to  classify  Japan  as  a  part  of  the 
Orient,  although  she  claims  to  be  its  leader  and 
mouthpiece.  She  is  one  with  China,  the  Philip- 
pines, and  India  in  her  Oriental  pride  and  color- 
consciousness,  and  has  already  fought  many 
battles  for  the  independence  of  the  yellow  races. 
On  the  other  hand,  Japanese  history  has  not 
been  enriched  by  the  struggles  of  the  masses  to 
wrest  the  privileges  of  self-government  from  their 
lords  and  masters.  At  present  Japan  stands  quite 
apart  from  the  republican  struggles  and  aspira- 
tions of  China,  the  Philippines,  and  India.  It  is 
not  even  evident  that  she  approves  of  them. 

[31] 


THE  DEMOCRATIC  MOVEMENT  IN  ASIA 

Singularly,  in  Japan  one  finds  little  of  this 
spirit  of  popular  discontent  which  is  so  pro- 
foundly stirring  her  neighbors.  For  years  one 
has  been  warned  of  the  imminence  of  a  revolution. 
Twice  within  three  years  have  I  visited  the 
Empire,  expecting  to  hear  or  overhear  the  mut- 
terings  of  a  dissatisfied  common  people.  Each 
time  have  I  been  disappointed.  Only  recently 
I  sat  at  dinner  with  two  distinguished  Japanese 
editors,  one  of  whom  is  a  member  of  Parliament. 
The  fourth  guest  was  an  American  who  has  lived 
many  years  in  the  country  and  understands 
unusually  well  both  men  and  measures. 

"How  goes  it  with  democracy  in  Japan?"  I 
asked. 

"I  believe  that  democracy  is  making  some 
progress,"  replied  the  member  of  Parliament, 
after  a  few  moments  of  sober  reflection,  "and 
yet  I  am  unable  to  square  my  impression  with 
the  fact  that  there  is  absolutely  no  demand  for 
the  extension  of  the  electorate."  The  other 
editor  confirmed  the  statement.  My  American 
friend,  himseK  surprised,  added,  "These  men 
are  close  to  the  people;  they  know  what  they 
are  talking  about." 

I  did  find  some  few  individuals  in  the  univer- 
sity circles  who  were  disposed  to  be  critical  and 
even  to  say  things  which  I  am  not  permitted  to 
quote;  yet  it  is  a  notable  fact  that  even  many 
graduates  who  have  the  privilege  of  the  ballot 
do  not  use  it.  At  any  rate,  it  is  safe  to  say  that  M 
there  is  no  such  political  unrest  in  Japan  as  ■ 
[32] 


THE  UNITED  STATES  IN  ASIA 

there  is  elsewhere  in  the  Orient.  The  leaven 
may  be  at  work,  but  a  survey  of  Japanese  history 
shows  that  the  Japanese  people  do  not  go  in 
for  revolutions  of  the  explosive  kind. 

The  recent  rice  riots  were  obviously  economic, 
not  political,  in  their  origin.  Whether  they  will 
have  any  permanent  political  influence  is  a  matter 
which  only  time  will  reveal.  Up  to  the  present 
time  no  political  reform  in  Japan  has  been  forced 
or  induced  by  any  uprising  of  the  common  people. 
Each  political  concession,  and  there  have  been 
not  a  few  of  them,  has  been  handed  down  from 
above  freely  but  paternally  by  a  very  small 
group  of  the  aristocracy.  The  mass  of  the  Jap- 
anese people  has  never  yet  given  any  evidence 
that  it  is  politically-minded. 

Japan,  judged  by  her  internal  economy  and 
by  her  administration  of  Korea,  is  quite  out  of 
step  with  the  world  movement  toward  democracy 
and  self-determination.  There  could  not  possibly 
be  a  greater  contrast  in  the  purposes  of  colonial 
policies  than  that  between  Korea  and  the  Philip- 
pines. Even  the  name  "Korea"  has  been  re- 
moved from  the  postal  guide.  The  "mailed 
fist,"  "the  rattling  saber"  were  gentleness  and 
honesty  itself  compared  with  the  methods  by 
which  Japan  forced  her  demands  on  China  a 
few  years  ago.  One  cannot  overlook  the  fact 
that  although  Japan  is  joining  in  this  war  for 
the  safety  of  democracy,  she  herself  is  not  one 
of  democracy's  defenders. 

The  internal  economy  of  Japan  is  not  a  proper 
[33] 


THE  DEMOCRATIC  MOVEMENT  IN  ASIA 

matter  of  concern  to  Americans,  or  to  any  nation, 
except  as  it  has  its  bearing  on  international 
affairs,  and  more  particularly  on  the  Oriental 
problem.  There  are  at  present  within  the  Empire 
some  very  influential  and  significant  groups  of 
people,  who  are  seeking  to  divert  Japan  from  a 
course  of  political  imperialism  to  one  of  economic 
expansion.  The  thorough  defeat  of  Prussianism 
will  doubtless  exercise  a  profound  influence.  It 
is  well  not  to  frame  more  than  tentative  judg- 
ments of  Japan  for  the  next  decade;  but  for  the 
present  it  is  not  evident  that  the  exaltation  of 
Japan  to  a  place  of  accepted  political  leadership 
of  Asia  would  not  paralyze  the  present  repub- 
lican movements  in  China,  the  PhiUppines,  and 
India. 

Business  men  may  say  that  China's  weakness 
is  fundamentally  commercial  and  industrial;  the 
statesman  may  say  that  it  arises  out  of  a  con- 
fusion of  political  theories;  the  railway  builder 
may  find  the  cause  in  the  wretched  system  or 
lack  of  system  of  communication;  the  teacher 
concludes  that  the  trouble  is  illiteracy;  the  phy- 
sician that  it  is  low  standards  of  health.  But 
any  broad  survey  of  present  Chinese  conditions 
must  reveal  very  clearly  that  none  of  the  reforms 
proposed  will  carry  very  far,  except  where  they 
are  accompanied  by  the  most  radical  moral  and 
spiritual  changes  in  the  people.  The  ethics  of 
Confucius,  with  its  pronounced  individualistic 
accent,  does  not  promote  the  sense  of  social 
responsibihty  which  is  essential  to  the  develop- 
[34] 


ASIA  REPRESENTS  A  VAST  RESER- 
VOIR OF  LABOR  WHICH  AS  YET  HAS 
BEEN  UTILIZED  VERY  INEFFECTU- 
ALLY. UNFORTUNATELY,  AS  POWER 
MACHINERY  AND  MODERN  FACTORIES 
INCREASE,  THE  WOMEN  AND  THE 
CHILDREN  ARE  AMONG  THE  FIRST 
TO  BE  DRAWN  INTO  THE  NEW  IN- 
DUSTRIAL SYSTEM. 


3 


I 


THE  UNITED  STATES  IN  ASIA 


ent  and  sustenance  of  public  spirit  and  pa- 
triotism. In  practice  it  has  proved  even  unequal 
to  supplying  the  personal  virtues  necessary  for 
the  carrying  on  of  the  simplest  cooperative 
political,  commercial,  or  educational  enterprises. 

Likewise,  the  most  serious  obstacle  to  the 
establishment  of  Home  Rule  in  India  is  not  eco- 
nomic or  educational,  but  moral  and  religious. 
It  is  frequently  pointed  out  that  India  lacks  a 
religious  unity  which  makes  for  peace  and  con- 
cord. The  Hindu  and  the  Mohammedan  repre- 
sent two  irreconcilable  religious  loyalties  which 
are  frequently  in  conflict.  It  is  equally  true  that 
neither  of  these  religions  has  in  the  past  demon- 
strated its  fitness  to  produce  the  ethical  qualities 
of  honesty,  justice,  liberty,  and  social  respon- 
sibility which  are  essential  to  the  maintenance  of 
free  government.  In  a  similar  way  the  greatest 
handicap  to  the  development  of  democracy  in 
the  Philippines  is  in  the  traditions  and  ideals 
of  a  religious  system  under  which  democracy 
has  never  been  able  to  flourish. 

The  four  sides  to  the  Oriental  problem  are 
respectively  political,  economic,  moral,  and  re- 
ligious, and  the  United  States  is  already  in- 
timately related  to  each  one  of  them. 

The  political  relation  of  the  United  States  is 
such,  both  for  the  immediate  present  and  for 
the  more  remote  future,  that  there  is  no  possi- 
bihty  of  taking  the  backward  track.  It  will 
not  be  possible  to  retire  from  the  Philippines 
until  the  principles  of  government  and  of  liberty 
[35] 


THE  DEMOCRATIC  MOVEMENT  IN  ASIA 

which  have  been  taken  to  the  Islands  are  well 
estabHshed  and  fully  protected,  not  only  in  the 
Philippines,  but  also  among  all  the  backward 
races  of  Asia.  Meanwhile,  every  political,  social, 
or  moral  condition  in  the  Eastern  hemisphere 
favorable  or  unfavorable  to  the  success  of  the 
Philippine  experiment  is  a  matter  of  immediate 
concern  to  Americans. 

The  thorough  defeat  of  Germany  disposes  of 
the  specter  of  a  Pan-Asia  Movement  for  the 
present.  This  defeat  may  easily  be  also  the 
end  of  imperialism  in  Japan,  if  the  end  of  the 
War  marks,  not  the  beginning  of  a  new  period 
of  selfish  exploitation  of  Asia  by  the  Western 
nations,  but  a  nev/  age  of  international  coopera- 
tion for  the  welfare  of  every  race.  On  the  other 
hand,  if  the  new  arrangements  do  not  provide 
that  the  race-consciousness  of  the  Oriental  peoples 
be  joined  with  such  favorable  conditions  for  self- 
development  as  will  satisfy  their  new  aspirations, 
it  is  only  a  matter  of  time  when  the  Indians, 
the  Chinese,  the  Filipinos,  the  Japanese,  and 
their  many  cousins  will  pool  their  issues  in  an 
Oriental  imperialism  which  will  make  the  present 
World  War  look  like  a  skirmish. 

For  a  decade  the  American  investments  on  the 
other  side  of  the  Pacific  have  been  increasing 
by  leaps  and  bounds.  Immediately  following  the 
close  of  the  War  there  will  be  a  new  contest  for 
the  markets  of  the  East.  Vast  commercial  and^ 
industrial  powers  are  already  straining  at  the 
leash,  waiting  for  the  end  of  the  War,  when  they 
[36] 


I 


THE  UNITED  STATES  IN  ASIA 


will  be  free  to  undertake  new  enterprises  on  a 
scale  hitherto  unknown.  The  unnumbered  tons  of 
shipping  which  will  be  in  the  possession  of  the 
United  States  will  greatly  facilitate  and  promote 
these  new  plans.  The  commercial  relations  be- 
tween the  United  States  and  Asia  will  be  the 
more  encouraged  because  of  the  fact  that  the 
economic  development  of  those  vast  areas  will 
be  most  essential  to  the  creation  of  political 
stability. 

Likewise  the  United  States  will  be  quite  un- 
able, and  unwilling,  to  lay  aside  the  moral  leader- 
ship which  has  come  to  her  by  reason  of  the  War. 
The  backward  races  of  Asia,  assured  by  President 
Wilson's  definition  of  war  aims,  confirmed  as 
they  have  been  by  Lloyd  George  and  by  the 
proposals  for  India,  confidently  expect  to  receive 
new  privileges  and  opportunities.  These  ideals,  as 
expressed  by  President  Wilson,  bid  fair  pro- 
foundly to  modify  the  established  colonial  policies 
of  every  European  nation.  Within  a  few  months 
after  the  entrance  of  the  United  States  into  the 
War,  the  French  Governor  General  of  Algeria, 
Tunisia,  and  Oran  issued  a  manifesto  to  the 
colonies  of  North  Africa,  announcing  that  France 
would  initiate  new  policies  for  her  colonies  similar 
to  those  which  the  Americans  have  established 
in  the  Philippines.  An  extension  of  the  electorate 
in  North  Africa  has  already  been  begun. 

For  the  intelHgent  discussion  of  any  phase  of 
the  Oriental  question  it  is  necessary  to  have 
before  one  a  broad  survey  of  the  entire  field. 
[37] 


THE  DEMOCRATIC  MOVEMENT  IN  ASIA 

The  one  great  question  before  the  American 
people  in  relation  to  the  Orient  is  how  the  new 
era  in  Asia  may  be  introduced  with  the  greatest 
prospects  of  success.  The  obstacles  which  these 
nations  have  to  overcome  are  political,  economic, 
and  social.  It  is  too  late  to  consider  the  rather 
academic  question  of  whether  these  peoples  have 
in  them  the  inherent  qualities  out  of  which 
democracies  are  built.  Lack  of  communications, 
of  common  language,  of  education,  and  of  re- 
ligious faith  which  is  in  harmony  with  republican 
ideals,  is  in  itself  sufficient  to  create  what  now 
appear  as  such  handicaps  to  effective  and  col- 
lective action.  The  Oriental  peoples  at  least 
have  the  right  to  the  freest  opportunity  to  over- 
come and  correct  their  deficiencies. 

The  question  of  religion,  therefore,  is  very 
properly  a  subject  for  consideration.  One  must 
recognize  that  Asia's  most  fundamental  weak- 
nesses are  social  and  ethical  and  spiritual. 
Changes  in  the  political  and  economic  order 
must  be  accompanied  by  the  development  of 
new  ideals.  In  this  latter  task  the  work  of  the 
missionary  assumes  a  greater  and  more  immediate 
importance  than  has  yet  been  realized.  The 
statesman,  the  colonial  administrator,  the  com- 
mercial promoter,  and  the  missionary  must  work 
hand  in  hand. 

Such  a  partnership  would  not  be  desirable  or 

defensible  if  the  future  were  to  resolve  itself  into 

another  period  of  mad  scrambhng  for  the  political 

or  commercial  exploitation  of  backward  peoples. 

[38] 


THE  UNITED  STATES  IN  ASIA 

The  missionary  can  have  no  part  in  such  a  pro- 
gram. There  must  be  no  more  using  of  mission- 
aries for  poHtical  propaganda  as  Germany  em- 
ployed them  throughout  Asia,  particularly  in 
India  and  China.  We  have  the  faith  to  believe, 
however,  that  the  world  is  entering  upon  a  new 
phase  of  colonial  and  of  international  policy,  in 
which  weak  peoples  are  not  to  be  exploited  but 
are  to  be  helped  to  self-government. 

The  Western  nations  are  about  to  place  in  the 
hands  of  the  Oriental  races  the  vast  resources  of 
civilization — machines,  factories,  methods  of  or- 
ganization, forms  of  government.  It  is  of  the 
utmost  importance  that  when  these  forces  are 
carried  to  Asia  there  shall  go  with  them  the 
idealism  which  has  made  their  accumulation 
possible  and  their  uses  human.  To  give  one 
without  the  other  is  to  invite  calamity  both  for 
the  East  and  for  the  West. 

The  following  pages  do  not  attempt  to  give 
the  missionary  a  place  of  exclusive  preeminence 
in  the  establishment  of  the  new  age;  they  seek 
merely  to  relate  his  work  to  the  other  forces 
which  must  also  be  operative  in  the  creation  of 
that  new  world.  The  same  facts  which  clothe 
with  a  new  dignity  the  work  of  American  states- 
men, bankers,  and  business  men  in  the  East  give 
also  a  new  importance  to  the  American  mission- 
ary school,  hospital,  and  chapel. 


[39] 


WHAT  ASIA  THINKS  OF  MISSIONARIES 


CHAPTER  m 
WHAT  ASIA  THINKS  OF  MISSIONARIES 

"The  missionaries  are  a  bad  lot."  One  can 
hardly  set  foot  on  a  trans-Pacific  steamer  without 
hearing  this  verdict.  "They  come  out  here  to 
live  in  luxm*y  and  to  make  money;  they  never 
make  a  sincere  convert."  Such  reports  come  in 
freely  from  the  tourist,  who  rapidly  gathers  con- 
victions from  what  he  hears  on  the  steamer  and 
in  the  hotels,  and  also  from  highly  respected 
people  who  have  had  long  residence  in  the  Orient. 

During  the  last  few  years  I  have  spent  nearly 
half  my  time,  as  tourist  and  writer,  traveling 
about  in  "foreign  missionary  countries"  and  on 
the  steamers  between  them  and  home.  These 
criticisms  have  always  interested  me.  When  I 
first  heard  them  I  had  few  positive  convictions 
on  the  subject,  but  I  always  attempted,  wherever 
possible,  to  make  a  personal  investigation  of 
every  charge.  Furthermore,  I  have  almost  never 
failed,  when  talking  with  either  a  foreigner  or  a 
native,  whatever  our  main  topic  of  conversation 
may  have  been,  to  come  around  to  this  question: 
What  do  you  think  of  the  missionaries.'^  What 
follows  is  not  an  apology;  it  is  merely  a  record 
of  these  investigations. 

I  have  found  that  there  are  two  ways  for  the 
tourist  to  s^^  the  Orient:  One  is  to  follow  the 
[43] 


THE  DEMOCRATIC  MOVEMENT  IN  ASIA 

trail  of  the  good  hotels,  carry  a  few  consular 
introductions  and  as  many  cards  as  possible  to 
business  men,  and  to  supplement  these  with  the 
eagerly  proffered  services  of  rikisha  coolies,  taxi 
drivers,  and  hotel  guides.  The  other  way  is  to 
go  to  the  missionary. 

The  native  guide,  either  professional  or  volun- 
teer, has  one  big  idea  and  very  few  small  ones. 
As  directly,  or  adroitly,  as  possible,  he  wishes  to 
get  his  party  to  some  place  where  the  tourist 
will  spend  some  money,  upon  which  the  guide 
can  return  later  to  collect  a  commission.  He  has 
a  miscellaneous  list  of  sights  for  which  he  has  a 
few  words  of  broken  English  explanation,  but 
his  purpose  is  to  get  one  past  these  things  as 
quickly  as  possible  and  head  for  the  silk  store 
or  the  curio  shop.  If  his  party  consists  only  of 
men  and  he  is  left  to  select  his  own  destination, 
he  is  almost  certain  to  arrive  at  the  segregated 
district.  The  only  country  in  the  entire  Orient 
to  which  this  last  statement  does  not  apply  is 
India.  It  is  unfortunately  true  that  a  great 
many  tourists  never  get  very  far  outside  of  routes 
marked  out  by  these  zealous  and  often  self- 
appointed  guides. 

Introductions  to  consuls  and  other  government 
officials  and  to  European  residents  are  valuable. 
It  is  regrettable  that  tourists  do  not  use  them 
more.  Not  only  do  these  people  lead  an  exiled 
life,  which  makes  a  visit  from  a  countryman 
with  the  latest  news  from  home  very  welcome, 
but  they  are  also  able  to  answer  many  questions 
[  44  ] 


IF  YOU  WERE  TO  ASK  SENATOR 
80R0KU  EBARA,  OP  THE  JAPANESE 
HOUSE  OF  PEERS,  WHAT  HE  THINKS 
OF  MISSIONARIES,  HE  WOULD  REPLY 
THAT  HE  BELIEVES  IN  THEM  ENOUGH 
SO  THAT  HE  BECAME  A  CHRISTIAN 
MORE   THAN   THIRTY   YEARS    AGO. 


WHAT  ASIA  THINKS  OF  MISSIONARIES 

and  offer  much  advice  of  great  value.  When 
one  moves  off  the  beaten  paths  of  travel,  the 
open-handed  hospitality  of  every  European  home 
is  one  of  the  delights  of  Oriental  travel.  How- 
ever, one  may  utilize  to  the  limit  the  services 
of  both  the  guide  and  the  European  and  yet  see 
very  little  of  the  real  Orient.  One  can  see  temples 
until  the  very  suggestion  of  another  temple  brings 
one  to  the  verge  of  collapse.  One  can  buy  silk 
and  curios  until  even  all  the  newly  acquired 
trunks  are  too  full  to  close.  One  can  take  number- 
less bad  snap-shots  of  street  scenes,  and  can 
study  countless  coolies  in  their  natural  habitat, 
but  the  actual  Orient  is  something  quite  aside 
from  all  this.  Like  some  other  places,  Asia  is 
chiefly  a  state  of  mind  or  a  point  of  view.  One 
will  have  to  search  elsewhere  than  in  streets, 
shops,  or  temples  to  find  it. 

Some  years  ago  in  Tokyo  I  met  Carl  Crow. 
I  was  about  to  take  my  first  plunge  into  China, 
and  was  then  carrying  in  my  grip  Crow's  guide- 
book to  the  country.  "What  suggestions  have 
you  for  the  trip?"  I  asked.  "How  can  I  see 
China  best.?" 

"Go  to  the  missionaries,"  replied  Crow.  Then 
he  modestly  added  that  his  guide  book  was  largely 
a  compilation  of  information  which  he  had  col- 
lected from  the  missionaries.  "They  are  the 
only  people,"  he  explained,  "who  really  know  the 
country." 

I  have  had  frequent  occasion  to  test  this  asser- 
tion and  I  feel  impelled  to  record  that  it  is  pro- 
[45] 


THE  DEMOCRATIC  MOVEMENT  IN  ASIA 

foundly  true.  The  temples  and  the  bazaars  have 
their  value  in  introducing  the  traveler  to  the 
country,  but  they  chiefly  give  him  a  glimpse 
of  what  the  past  has  been.  The  people  who  are 
the  present  and  who  are  determining  the  future 
cannot  be  found  there.  In  order  to  see  the  Orient 
that  is,  the  tourist  will  have  to  make  very  gener- 
ous use  of  the  missionary.  And  yet  very  few 
tourists  see  him  at  all. 

The  missionary  is  often  the  one  person  avail- 
able who  understands  both  the  language  of  the 
tourist  and  the  language  of  the  country,  but  more 
important  is  the  fact  that  often  he  alone  under- 
stands why  the  traveler  asks  the  questions  he 
does.  He  knows  the  background  of  the  ques- 
tioner's mind  and  is  at  the  same  time  intimately 
familiar  with  the  life  about  which  the  question 
is  asked.  The  English-speaking  native  may  under- 
stand the  words,  but  unless  he  belongs  to  a  very 
limited  class  of  those  who  have  been  educated 
abroad  he  is  at  loss  to  understand  why  anyone 
would  ask  such  a  fool  question  anyhow. 

The  consular  agent  may  know  the  language — 
he  must  before  he  can  secure  promotion — but 
his  relation  to  the  native  is  largely  official.  He 
may  be  able  to  answer  questions,  but  his  intro- 
ductions to  citizens  of  the  country  often  have 
an  official  coloring  which  is  an  embarrassment  to 
free  conversation.  Even  the  consul  who  is  de- 
voting his  time  enthusiastically  to  study  does 
not  begin  to  be  in  such  intimate  contact  with 
the  commonplace  daily  life  of  the  people  as  is 
[46] 


WHAT  ASIA  THINKS  OF  MISSIONARIES 

the  missionary.  The  business  man  whom  one  may 
meet  has  been  sent  to  the  Orient  to  take  care 
of  business.  Usually  he  does  not  learn  the  lan- 
guage, or  at  least  does  not  learn  it  well.  His 
contacts  with  the  native  life  are  largely  second- 
hand, through  his  comprador  or  some  native 
assistant,  and  are  almost  exclusively  commercial. 
While  I  have  met  some  business  men,  particularly 
in  India,  who  stand  in  exceptionally  close  relation 
to  the  native,  I  have  usually  found  it  necessary 
to  allow  for  a  certain  amount  of  color  prejudice 
in  appraising  the  judgment  of  the  average  business 
man  on  any  subject  connected  with  the  Orient, 
outside  those  included  in  his  commercial  relations. 

Of  course,  I  do  not  wish  to  imply  that  the 
missionary  alone  is  to  be  relied  upon  for  trust- 
worthy opinions,  but  merely  to  record  my  own 
observation  that  the  missionary,  because  of  his 
unofficial  and  intimate  association  with  all  sorts 
and  conditions  of  people,  and  because  of  his 
knowledge  of  the  language,  usually  has  the  best 
balanced  judgments.  Naturally  he  is  trying  to 
see  the  people  at  their  best  and  his  relation  to 
them  is  friendly  and  even  affectionate.  He  is 
often  frankly  partisan.  When  he  errs  at  all  it 
is  usually  on  the  side  of  optimism.  On  the  other 
hand,  the  unmitigated  snobbery  of  the  white 
race  is  such  that  most  other  foreigners  in  Asia 
have  a  tendency  to  err  on  the  side  of  pessimism 
in  their  judgments  both  of  the  natives  and  of 
local  conditions. 

So  much  by  way  of  explanation  as  to  how  I 
[47] 


THE  DEMOCRATIC  MOVEMENT  IN  ASIA 

first  came  to  seek  out  the  missionary  and  to 
know  him.  My  motive  was  quite  utilitarian.  I 
came  more  and  more  to  find  that  he  was  the  most 
useful  guide.  In  the  back  of  my  mind  when 
I  met  him  were  the  current  criticisms.  I  have 
always  found  him  willing  to  meet  them  frankly 
when  they  were  stated.  More  recently  I  have 
hved  in  his  home  for  days  and  weeks  at  a  time, 
in  places  where  there  were  no  hotel  accommo- 
dations within  hundreds  of  miles.  I  have  been  in 
intimate  association  with  him  and  his  family 
and  he  has  freely  introduced  me  to  his  friends. 
Now  as  to  the  criticisms. 

Do  they  ever  make  sincere  converts?  The 
name  "rice  Christians"  has  spread  throughout 
Asia.  It  implies  that  the  convert  is  held  by 
inducements  of  rice  and  of  other  economic,  social, 
and  even  political  advantages.  I  have  been  told 
again  and  again  very  soberly  and  seriously,  by 
Europeans  who  have  lived  for  ten,  twenty,  and 
thirty  years  in  the  Orient,  that  the  missionaries 
never  made  a  sincere  convert. 

One  would  indeed  be  very  courageous,  as  well 
as  something  else,  to  suggest  in  Japan  to  Prof. 
Inazo  Nitobe  of  the  Imperial  University,  Senator 
Soroku  Ebara  of  the  House  of  Peers,  Dr.  Ukita, 
editor  of  the  Taiyo,  Takutaro  Sakai  of  the  Mitsui 
Bank,  Mr.  Kobayashi,  the  tooth-powder  man, 
Mr.  Obara,  the  millionaire  silk  manufacturer  of 
Kurashiki,  Mr.  Hatano  of  the  Ayabe  Silk  Fil- 
atures, Madame  Yajima  and  Miss  Tsuda,  both 
of  whom  were  recently  decorated  by  the  Emperor,  _ 
[48]  I 


n 


pcoc 


ry^y^x^M 


"^      M 


9m 


MADAME  YAJIMA  TREASUllES  A 
DECORATION  FROM  THE  EMPIRE  FOR 
HER  DISTINGUISHED  SERVICES  TO 
THE  EMPIRE.  SHE  IS  THE  PRESI- 
DENT OF  THE  JAPANESE  WOMAN's 
CHRISTIAN  TEMPERANCE  UNION  AND 
A  LEADER  IN  ALL  REFQRMS  FOR 
WOMEN. 


»      Ir      <■      P, 


WHAT  ASIA  THINKS  OF  MISSIONARIES 

Madame  Hiroaka,  daughter  of  the  Mitsui  family 
and  one  of  the  richest  women  in  Japan,  that  they 
were  "rice  Christians."  Madame  Hiroaka  told 
me  that  during  the  last  three  years  she  has,  under 
the  direction  of  the  Union  Evangelistic  Campaign, 
stumped  the  Empire  from  Hokkaido  to  Shi- 
monoseki,  speaking  in  practically  every  large 
town  in  church,  hall,  or  theater,  wherever  she 
could  find  shelter,  for  Christianity.  Mr.  Ko- 
bayashi,  Mr.  Obara,  and  Mr.  Hatano — and  I 
might  mention  many  other  Christian  manufac- 
turers— are  setting  standards  in  industrial  better- 
ment and  in  welfare  work  for  their  employes  far 
in  advance  of  public  sentiment,  and  equal  in 
extent  and  thoroughness  to  the  best  there  was 
of  the  kind  in  the  United  States  not  many 
years  ago. 

There  has  never  been  a  time  since  the  Japan 
Parliament  was  organized  when  there  have  not 
been  more  than  a  dozen  Christians  in  the  member- 
ship. The  Japanese  are  as  sensitive  as  Americans 
to  detect  insincerity  among  Christians.  The  very 
fact  that  these  people  whom  I  have  mentioned 
are  who  they  are  and  what  they  are  contributes 
an  important  answer  to  the  question:  What  does 
Japan  think  of  its  Christians?  The  strength  of 
Christianity  in  Japan  is  all  the  more  remarkable 
when  one  remembers  that  there  are  still  many 
people  living  who  remember  when  the  old  edict 
was  still  in  force:  "So  long  as  the  sun  shall  warm 
the  earth,  let  them  all  know  that  the  King  of 
Spain  himself,  or  the  Christian  God,  or  the  Great 
[49] 


THE  DEMOCRATIC  MOVEMENT  IN  ASIA 

God  of  All,  if  he  violates  this  command,  shall 
pay  for  it  with  his  head." 

As  one  passes  over  to  China  one  encounters 
a  similar  list  of  imposing  names.  There  are  the 
Nieh  Brothers,  cotton  manufacturers  of  Shanghai; 
Wong  Kwong,  President  of  the  Yangtse  Engineer- 
ing Works  at  Hankow;  many  of  the  oflScers  of 
the  Hanyang  Iron  Works;  Dr.  W.  W.  Yen, 
recently  minister  to  Germany,  and  his  brother 
who  is  building  the  government  railway  from 
Hankow  to  Canton;  C.  T.  Wong,  until  revolution 
left  him  without  office,  Vice-President  of  the 
Senate;  C.  C.  Wong,  who  has  served  as  Auditor 
General  for  the  Ministry  of  Posts  and  Com- 
munications; and  Yung  Tao,  the  millionaire 
philanthropist  of  Peking.  I  selected  these  names 
from  a  much  longer  list  of  representative  Chinese 
Christians  who  talked  freely  of  their  Christian 
convictions. 

The  recent  president  of  the  Kwangtung  Pro- 
vincial Assembly  was  the  Reverend  K.  Y.  Shia, 
who  was  called  to  that  office  from  the  pastorate 
of  the  Second  Congregational  Church  of  Honolulu. 

Over  in  India,  where  I  was  repeatedly  assured 
that  all  Christians  are  "rice  Christians,"  I  met 
Sir  Rajah  Harnam  Singh,  a  charming  Hindu 
gentleman,  whose  adherence  to  his  Christian 
views  cost  him  a  kingdom.  He  assured  me  that 
he  had  no  regrets.  Two  years  ago  he  served  as 
moderator  of  the  Presbyterian  General  Assembly 
for  India. 

The  most  recent  statistics  show  that  there 
[60] 


WHAT  ASIA  THINKS  OF  MISSIONARIES 

are  about  7,000,000  Christian  converts.  Catholic 
and  Protestant,  in  Asia.  They  are  divi'ded 
according  to  the  following  geographical  divisions: 

Japan,  Korea,  and  Formosa.  .  .     360,000 

China 2,350,000 

British    Malaysia    and    Dutch 

East  Indies 186,000 

India,  Ceylon,  and  Burma 4,237,000 

It  would  be  misleading  to  give  the  impression 
that  this  vast  body  is  made  up  exclusively  of 
such  as  those  whose  names  I  have  mentioned. 
I  have  cited  these  people,  almost  all  of  whom 
I  have  talked  with,  merely  to  show  that  Chris- 
tianity has  so  commended  itself  to  the  Orient 
by  the  results  which  it  has  achieved,  that  such 
men  and  women  as  these  whom  I  have  named 
have  become  converts. 

Here  is  another  way  of  going  at  the  subject. 
How  much  do  these  seven  million  Christians  pay 
toward  the  support  of  the  churches  to  which 
they  belong.'^  It  must  be  remembered  that  a 
gold  dollar  represents  in  terms  of  day  labor 
anywhere  from  five  to  twenty  times  as  much  in 
the  Orient  as  in  America.  The  records  show  that 
out  of  the  approximately  forty  millions  gold 
which  is  annually  spent  on  foreign  missions,  more 
than  one  sixth  is  collected  on  the  various  fields. 
This  represents,  roughly  measured  by  wages  paid 
to  skilled  labor,  and  in  sacrifice,  as  much  as  fifty 
million  dollars  contributed  by  Christians  in  the 
United  States. 

[51] 


THE  DEMOCRATIC  MOVEMENT  IN  ASIA 

I  have  never  been  content  to  rest  on  the  mis- 
sionary's estimate  of  his  own  work.  I  have  been 
astonished  to  meet  among  his  converts  men  and 
women  of  such  distinction,  but  I  have  gone  even 
further  than  that  to  find  out  what  Asia  thinks 
of  missionaries.  I  took  the  question  to  Sir  James 
Meston  of  Lucknow,  Lieutenant  Governor  of  the 
United  Provinces,  and  recently  made  a  member 
of  the  first  Imperial  Council  in  London.  He  is 
an  old  Indian  Civil  Service  man,  who  has  worked 
his  way  up  through  the  ranks  to  his  present 
position.  The  position  of  Americans  in  India 
at  the  time  I  called  was  delicate.  President 
Wilson's  first  peace  note  was  being  widely  dis- 
cussed, and  generally  taken  as  not  very  friendly. 
A  Scotchman,  very  sympathetic  to  Americans, 
told  me  about  that  time  that  if  public  sentiment 
against  Americans  increased  in  the  next  six 
months  as  it  had  in  the  last  six,  it  was  not  improb- 
able that  all  of  them  would  have  to  leave  India. 
When  this  fact  is  taken  into  consideration.  Sir 
James'  statement  becomes  doubly  impressive. 

He  said:  "Of  course  there  is  a  great  difference 
of  opinion  about  mission  work.  Some  scoff  at 
it;  some  value  it  for  its  purpose  to  convert  the 
native  to  Christianity;  others  appreciate  it  for 
its  humanitarian  services.  The  Government 
takes  a  neutral  attitude,  but  it  does  enormously 
value  the  assistance  rendered  by  the  missionaries 
to  good  government.  The  missions  have  helped 
in  education  and  have  done  a  great  deal  for  the 
depressed  classes  which  the  Government  could 
[52] 


WHAT  ASIA  THINKS  OF  MISSIONARIES 


I 

^■lot  do   and   which   the   Indian   is   unwilling   to 

Ho." 

^B    "What    about    the   American    missionaries    in 
particular?"  I  asked. 

"Of  course  the  Government  must  preserve  a 
strict  impartiaUty,"  replied  Sir  James,  "but  I 
will  say  this:  I  have  never  been  embarrassed 
by  any  act  of  an  American  missionary." 

Never  shall  I  forget  a  frank  conversation  which 
I  had  in  his  palace  with  His  Highness,  the  Gaek- 
war  of  Baroda.  He  told  me  of  some  of  the  meas- 
ures which  he  had  already  introduced  for  the 
betterment  of  his  subjects,  and  of  the  difficulties 
which  he  had  encountered.  His  admiration  for 
things  American  is  so  unqualified  as  to  be  almost 
naive,  but  I  think  I  was  most  of  all  impressed 
when  he  said,  "I  am  thinking  of  calling  together 
the  missionaries  and  asking  them  to  tell  me  their 
views  on  how  we  can  improve  the  quality  of  the 
native  priesthood.  Then  I  want  to  call  the 
priests  together  and  say  to  them,  *Look  at  the 
missionaries.  See  the  sacrifices  they  are  making 
to  help  our  people.  You  ought  to  go  out  and  do 
the  same  kind  of  work.'  "  His  Highness  has 
already  established  a  professorship  of  comparative 
religion  in  the  Baroda  College  for  the  express 
purpose  of  introducing  the  native  religious  leaders 
to  other  religions,  with  a  view  to  improving  the 
quality  of  their  own. 

The  Times  of  India,  published  in  Bombay,  is 
one  of  the  two  or  three  outstanding  newspapers 
of  the  land.     Sir  Stanley  Reed,  the  editor,  per- 
[63] 


THE  DEMOCRATIC  MOVEMENT  IN  ASIA 

haps  more  than  any  other  European  newspaper 
man  in  India,  enjoys  the  confidence  of  the  Indians 
themselves.  I  asked  him,  "What  do  you  think 
of  the  missionaries?" 

"One  cannot  estimate  the  success  of  the  mis- 
sions," he  repHed,  "by  the  number  of  converts 
or  by  the  statistical  reports.  I  am  not  an  active 
member  of  any  church,  but  I  will  say  this:  If 
missions  could  not  show  one  single  convert,  they 
would  still  be  justified  ten  thousand  fold  by  the 
moral  influence  which  they  exert  on  the  country. 
I  have  fifty  or  sixty  Indian  friends  here  in  Bombay, 
unusual  men,  leaders  of  exceptional  ability,  re- 
formers. One  and  all,  they  have  been  power- 
fully influenced  by  Christianity,  although  some 
of  them  will  not  admit  it,  and  others  do  not 
know  whence  the  influence  has  come." 

I  might  easily  append  similar  statements  from 
men  of  equal  standing,  both  foreigners  and  na- 
tives, both  Christians  and  non-Christians,  but 
the  reiteration  of  the  same  general  opinion  would 
be  tiresome.  Perhaps  the  most  emphatic  state- 
ment of  any  comes  from  Dr.  G.  E.  Morrison, 
formerly  correspondent  to  the  London  Times  in 
Peking,  and  more  recently  special  foreign  adviser 
to  the  Chinese  President.  He  said  to  me,  "It 
is  easy  to  criticize  the  missionaries,  to  say  humor- 
ous things  and  to  see  the  ridiculous,  but  their 
work  is  good.  Whenever  I  hear  anyone  abusing 
missionaries  and  saying  that  their  work  is  value- 
less, I  set  him  down  as  a  fool.  He  simply  does 
not  know  what  he  is  talking  about.  One  cannot 
[54] 


BARON  8AKATANI,  ONE  OF  THE 
LEADERS  AMONG  THE  YOUNGER  JAP- 
ANESE STATESMEN,  SAYS  THAT  THE 
MISSIONARIES  HAVE  RENDERED  A 
GREAT  SERVICE  TO  JAPAN,  PROMOT- 
ING MANY  NEEDED  REFORMS  AND 
DEVELOPING  A  SENSE  OF  INTER- 
NATIONAL BROTHERHOOD. 


xu.  '  .: 


WHAT  ASIA  THINKS  OF  MISSIONARIES 

travel  a  week  in  any  direction  even  in  the  re- 
motest corners  of  the  Republic  and  not  run  on 
to  a  mission.  These  places  are  sources  of  good 
and  only  of  good.  They  are  the  greatest  forces 
for  the  uplift  of  this  country." 

"What  has  Christianity  brought  to  Japan  .f^" 
I  asked  Baron  Y.  Sakatani,  seeking  not  for  com- 
pliments and  kind  words,  but  for  his  cold  estimate. 
He  is  not  a  Christian,  but  he  represents  the  very 
best  which  Japan  has  produced. 

"Christianity  has  brought  a  widening  of  ideas, 
the  feelings  of  internationahsm  and  brotherhood," 
he  replied. 

"Would  not  commerce  have  brought  this.^^" 

"Yes,  but  in  a  different  way.  Commerce  is 
self-seeking.  Christianity  has  been  unselfish  and 
has  stood  aside  from  personal  profit.  In  our 
long  history,  we  have  experienced  several  times 
the  importation  of  foreign  ideas.  Confucianism 
came,  then  Buddhism,  then  Christianity.  The 
old  faiths  were  Japanized.  Whenever  new  ideas 
come,  we  are  not  swallowed  up  by  them,  but 
we  digest  them.  The  Buddhism  in  Japan  is  far 
better  and  purer  than  that  in  India.  We  take 
the  best  and  we  shall  be  glad  to  take  the  best 
out  of  Christianity.  At  the  present  time  Chris- 
tianity is  making  its  most  notable  progress  among 
the  better  educated  people." 

How  then  does  it  happen  that  so  many  tourists 

and  business  men  come  back  from   the  Orient 

not  knowing  these  facts?     Not  long  ago  I  heard 

an  engineer  who  had  been  out  there  eighteen 

[56] 


THE  DEMOCRATIC  MOVEMENT  IN  ASIA 

years  say  to  a  circle  of  information-hungry  tour- 
ists on  shipboard  that  the  missionaries  are  only 
trouble-makers.  In  proof  of  his  point  he  as- 
serted that  they  have  made  so  much  trouble 
in  the  last  few  years  in  Korea  that  the  Govern- 
ment has  had  to  drive  them  all  out  of  the  country. 
His  standing  in  his  profession,  his  assurance  in 
making  this  statement,  and  his  eighteen  years 
in  the  Orient  made  him  an  authority  in  the 
estimation  of  his  hearers.  Doubtless  if  it  had 
gone  unchallenged  a  dozen  Americans  would  have 
been  released  in  America  to  spread  such  a  state- 
ment from  California  to  Maine.  As  a  matter 
of  fact  there  are  today  in  Korea  almost  five  hun- 
dred missionaries,  an  increase  of  fifty-seven  per 
cent  in  six  years. 

Most  tourists  never  see  a  missionary  unless  by 
chance  they  meet  him  on  the  steamer.  The 
missionary  does  not  frequent  the  hotels.  He  is 
almost  never  at  the  club.  He  does  not  attend 
the  race-meeting.  Usually  he  is  off  in  the  in- 
terior where  no  tourist  ever  goes.  There  are  few 
facilities  for  bringing  the  missionary  and  the 
tourist  together.  Each  of  them  finds  each  day 
exceptionally  full. 

The  missionary  himself  is  in  part  to  blame 
that  his  work  is  so  little  known.  When  Judge 
Gary  was  in  the  Orient  a  few  years  ago,  the  man 
who  made  out  his  itinerary  and  personally  accom- 
panied him,  himself  the  son  of  a  missionary,  went 
to  some  of  the  missionaries  in  one  city  and  sug- 
gested that  Judge  Gary  would  be  there  at  a 
[56] 


WHAT  ASIA  THINKS  OF  MISSIONARIES 

certain  time  and  that  it  might  be  possible  for 
them  to  show  him  some  of  their  work.  They 
were  so  preoccupied  in  what  they  were  doing, 
so  busy  with  regular  engagements,  that  they 
failed  to  see  the  importance  of  the  suggestion. 
The  result  was  that,  although  Judge  Gary  was 
given  every  possible  facility  to  see  other  phases 
of  Oriental  life  and  development,  he  had  prac- 
tically no  chance  for  first-hand  study  of  the 
foreign  missionary  business  in  the  Orient,  which 
involves  the  work  of  a  foreign  staff  of  13,737 
people  and  an  annual  expenditure  of  approx- 
imately $20,000,000.  Dr.  Simon  Flexner,  who 
did  see  the  missionaries  when  he  was  in  China 
making  investigations  for  the  China  Medical 
Board  of  the  Rockefeller  Foundation,  made  the 
statement  that  there  is  no  organization  in  the 
world,  either  philanthropic  or  commercial,  which 
is  getting  as  large  returns  out  of  the  money  it 
spends  as  the  various  boards  of  foreign  missions. 

The  chief  cause  of  the  failure  of  the  tourist 
to  meet  the  missionary  is  that  the  former  is  so 
caught  and  enthralled  by  the  novelty  and  pic- 
turesqueness  of  the  country  that  his  attention  is 
immediately  distracted  from  what  are,  after  all, 
the  biggest  subjects  of  interest.  He  goes  to  the 
Orient  to  see  "something  different,"  and  he 
carries  with  him  more  or  less  of  the  Caucasian 
assumption  that  all  that  is  not  of  Occidental 
origin,  while  interesting,  is  essentially  inferior. 
Thus  prejudiced  and  misled,  he  does  not  even 
attempt  to  get  to  the  people  who  can  speak  for 
[57] 


THE  DEMOCRATIC  MOVEMENT  IN  ASIA 

their  country  and  who  are  leading  it.  If  he 
went  to  them  they  would  lead  him  to  the  mis- 
sionary. On  the  other  hand  if  he  went  first  to 
the  missionary  he  would  find  that  he,  more  than 
anyone  else,  is  in  intimate  association  with  the 
native  who  has  the  big  ideas  and  who  has  the 
vision  of  a  new  age  for  Asia. 


[58] 


BUILDERS  OF  CIVILIZATION 


CHAPTER  IV 
BUILDERS  OF  CIVILIZATION 

What  sort  of  folks  are  the  missionary  and  his 
wife? 

I  called  on  one  some  years  ago  while  he  was 
home  on  furlough,  to  ask  for  some  exciting 
stories,  having  heard  that  he  had  once  escaped 
on  his  bicycle  from  a  tiger  down  near  the  borders 
of  Siam  and  the  Federated  Malay  States.  He 
was  a  very  modest  gentleman,  quite  at  a  loss  to 
understand  or  sympathize  with  my  quest.  He 
would  rather  tell  me  about  his  hospital.  At 
length  I  made  clear  to  him  that  for  the  moment 
I  was  in  more  urgent  need  of  information  about 
the  human  side  of  missionary  work.    He  replied: 

"You  remind  me  of  a  story  about  Hoover  of 
Borneo.  The  last  time  he  was  in  this  country 
he  was  being  pursued  by  a  group  of  ladies  at  a 
missionary  meeting.  They  said  to  him,  *Now, 
Mr.  Hoover,  tell  us  a  story.  Of  course  we  are 
interested  in  your  rice  mills,  your  Chinese  immi- 
gration work,  and  your  association  with  the 
White  Rajah  of  Borneo,  but  we  know  that  you 
come  from  the  land  of  the  head-hunters.  Surely 
you  can  tell  some  exciting  tales  about  being 
chased  by  the  Dyaks!' 

"  Tery  well,  then,'  said  Mr.  Hoover,  T  will 
tell  you  of  my  greatest  adventure  with  the  head- 
[61] 


THE  DEMOCRATIC  MOVEMENT  IN  ASIA 

hunters.  One  day  I  was  out  in  the  jungle  with 
four  of  them.  We  were  on  a  lonely  trail  in  the 
dense  forest.  There  were  two  boys  in  front  of 
me  and  two  boys  behind  me;  no  white  men 
within  hundreds  of  miles.  Just  when  we  reached 
the  darkest  spot  in  the  jungle,  the  boy  behind 
me  drew  out  a  long  knife  and  stabbed  me  through 
the  heart.  The  head-hunters  buried  me  there 
in  the  jungle  under  a  tree,  and,  do  you  know,  it 
makes  tears  come  to  my  eyes  whenever  I  think 
of  that  poor  little  grave.'  " 

If  the  ladies  had  only  known  it,  they  might 
have  drawn  out  from  Mr.  Hoover  an  equally 
exciting,  though  less  fantastic,  tale  about  an 
effort  to  make  a  couple  of  carabao  work  in  front 
of  a  new-fangled  American  mowing-machine.  An 
enthusiastic  friend  of  modern  agriculture  pro- 
jected the  idea  that  the  rich  lands  of  Borneo 
would  blossom  like  the  wheat-fields  of  Kansas 
if  only  they  could  be  cultivated  with  modern 
agricultural  implements.  Straightway  he  ordered 
shipped  to  Sarawak  an  assortment  of  labor-saving 
instruments,  in  which  was  included  a  mowing- 
machine.  Some  of  the  implements  were  very 
useful  and  eagerly  adopted  by  the  Chinese 
colonists,  but  the  mower  presented  difficulties. 

The  carabao  is  usually  a  mild-mannered  do- 
mestic beast  who  likes  to  possess  his  soul  in 
peace  and  quiet.  He  wades  leisurely  through 
the  paddy  fields,  attached  to  a  crooked  stick 
which  serves  as  a  plow  and  is  steered  by  a  rope 
attached  to  a  ring  in  his  nose.  The  farmer  loves 
[62] 


BUILDERS  OF  CIVILIZATION 

him  as  a  member  of  his  own  family,  for  he  is 
the  only  draught  animal  yet  discovered  which 
can  be  induced  to  live  and  work  in  many  parts 
of  the  tropics.  Nothing  in  a  carabao's  previous 
experience  fits  him  to  be  hitched  up  in  front  of 
a  modern  mowing-machine.  The  missionaries 
down  in  Borneo  are  willing  to  make  an  affidavit 
to  the  foregoing  statement,  for  they  made  the 
experiment  with  amazing  results.  A  pair  of 
carabao,  attached  to  the  new  American  mower, 
were  turned  loose  in  a  ten-acre  lot  which  was 
ripe  for  the  harvest.  The  poor  beasts  bent  them- 
selves to  the  yoke  and  got  the  contraption  under 
way. 

It  must  have  seemed  to  them  as  though  they 
had  been  suddenly  cut  off  in  the  rear  by  a  battalion 
of  Browning  machine  guns.  The  faster  they 
traveled,  the  worse  the  racket.  The  carabao 
charged  down  the  field  like  the  immortal  Light 
Brigade  and  made  for  the  swamp  where  they 
could  lie  down  and  get  under  cover.  The  Chinese 
farmers  disentangled  the  machine,  lifted  it  out 
of  the  mud,  and  tried  hauling  it  themselves  for 
a  while,  but  at  length  surrendered  to  tradition 
and  cut  the  balance  of  the  crop  according  to  the 
methods  of  their  fathers. 

One  reason  why  the  missionary  does  not  always 
tell  his  most  interesting  story  is  that  he  does  not 
dare.  He  is  the  guest  of  the  government  and 
of  the  people  with  whom  he  works.  After  a  few 
bitter  experiences  with  uninformed  or  unscru- 
pulous reporters  or  head-line  writers,  he  con- 
[63] 


THE  DEMOCRATIC  MOVEMENT  IN  ASIA 

eludes  that  the  only  safe  course  is  to  keep  his 
mouth  shut  tight.  What  he  says  while  home  on 
furlough  is  reported  directly  back  to  his  field 
of  labors.  His  statements  may  offend,  or  be 
twisted  so  that  they  will  offend  either  the  govern- 
ment which  has  permitted  him  to  work  there, 
or  the  people  whose  confidence  and  friendship 
he  must  have  if  his  work  is  to  continue  after  he 
returns. 

The  experience  of  a  young  Indian  who  came 
to  this  country  a  few  years  ago  to  complete  his 
education  will  illustrate  the  need  of  extreme 
caution  on  the  part  of  the  missionary  in  treating 
of  subjects  which  lie  outside  his  own  special 
field.  The  story  is  merely  illustrative  of  general 
conditions;  the  man  himseK  was  not  a  mission- 
ary. He  supported  himself  during  the  summers 
by  giving  Chautauqua  lectures  on  India,  and 
proved  a  most  acceptable  speaker.  On  his 
return  to  his  own  country  he  accepted  a  position 
as  teacher  in  a  state  college  in  one  of  the  native 
princedoms.  After  he  had  been  at  work  a  few 
weeks  there  came  a  letter  to  the  British  Resident 
from  Delhi,  instructing  him  to  inquire  of  the  au- 
thorities why  they  had  employed  a  returned  stu- 
dent who  was  known  to  have  uttered  seditious  sen- 
timents while  in  the  United  States.  The  young 
man  denied  the  charge  and  his  answer  was  re- 
ported back  to  the  capital  at  Delhi.  Shortly 
afterwards  the  Resident  received  a  sheaf  of 
clippings  about  the  Chautauqua  lectures  in  which 
both  the  reporter  and  the  head-line  writer,  had 
[64] 


BUILDERS  OF  CIVILIZATION 

done  their  worst.  Fortunately  the  young  man 
was  able  to  prove  through  the  president  of  the 
university  from  which  he  was  graduated,  who 
took  the  matter  up  with  the  British  Embassy  in 
Washington,  that  the  lectures  had  been  mis- 
quoted, so  that  he  retained  his  place. 

Bangs  was  sent  to  Bang-bang,  up  in  the  Malay 
Peninsula.  This  is  not  his  name,  nor  is  it  the 
place,  but  that  does  not  matter.  The  story  is 
true.  His  instructions  were  to  start  a  school 
for  the  Chinese  and  to  open  up  mission  work. 
The  Government  had  promised  to  provide  the 
land  for  the  school  building  and  Bangs  expected 
to  find  waiting  for  him  a  very  extensive  subscrip- 
tion hst,  signed  by  wealthy  Chinese,  to  meet 
the  expenses  of  building.  He  was  instructed  to 
present  himself  to  the  police-inspector  who  was 
supposed  to  be  heartily  backing  the  project. 
Shortly  after  Bangs'  arrival  the  official  was  sud- 
denly transferred  for  excellent  reasons.  Then 
Bangs  discovered  that  the  names  of  all  the 
brothel-keepers  in  the  region  were  on  his  sub- 
scription list.  They  had  no  objections  to  sub- 
scribing when  the  inspector  of  police  argued  the 
cause,  but  they  felt  very  differently  about  paying 
out  their  cash  when  a  young  missionary  came 
to  collect  it.  He  in  turn,  had  Httle  disposition 
to  accept  that  kind  of  contributions. 

Meanwhile,  Bangs  found  that  the  contract  for 

the  school  building  had  been  let  to  a  dishonest 

builder;  the  time  during  which  the  construction 

must  be  started  was  rapidly  passing,  the  Chinese 

[65] 


THE  DEMOCRATIC  MOVEMENT  IN  ASIA 

were  losing  confidence  in  the  enterprise,  and  the 
Government  was  impatient.  He  sent  out  two 
hundred  notices  to  leading  Chinese,  inviting 
them  to  meet  and  confer  on  the  proper  action 
to  be  taken.  No  one  came.  He  called  a  meet- 
ing of  his  executive  committee,  with  a  similar 
response.  Then  he  jumped  on  his  bicycle  and 
scoured  the  highways  and  byways  of  the  jungle 
in  the  scorching  sun,  which  registers  one  hundred 
and  forty  degrees  and  no  shade  every  day,  to 
round  up  his  committee.  The  last  member  he 
roused  from  bed  late  at  night  and  called  them  to 
order.  The  project  was  revived  and  a  new  sub- 
scription list  started,  which  soon  totaled  $8,000. 
The  school  began  temporarily  in  an  old  church 
with  forty -three  pupils.  At  the  same  time 
preaching  services  in  Chinese,  Tamil,  and  Malay 
were  opened  in  the  jail,  and  a  Young  Men's 
Association  was  organized  for  the  Chinese,  offer- 
ing opportunities  with  mutual  benefit  features 
which  appealed  greatly  to  the  wealthy  men. 
One  effective  means  of  raising  money  for  the 
young  men  was  to  make  a  rule  that  whenever  a 
$500  gift  was  registered  the  donor  might  have 
his  picture  hung  in  the  club  rooms. 

Bangs  went  to  the  government  rest  house,  but 
the  rules  there  stated  that  none  except  govern- 
ment ofiicials  might  remain  more  than  seven 
days.  Even  during  that  period  he  was  liable 
to  be  dispossessed  if  an  official  had  need  of  the 
room.  Of  course  it  was  just  Bangs'  luck  that 
an  official  did  need  it  one  night  about  one  o'clock. 
[66] 


THE  YALE  MISSION  IN  CHANG3HA, 
CHINA,  HAS  A  VERY  ACTIVE  BOY 
SCOUTS  TROOP,  IN  WHICH  THE  TRA- 
DITIONAL  YALE    SPIRIT SOMETHING 

VERY      NEW      IN      CHINA IS      BEING 

PROPAGATED. 


»      o     »    o    •  p    t        c- 


BUILDERS  OF  CIVILIZATION 

Then  he  went  to  a  Singhalese  hotel  and  shared 
his  room  with  less  official  and  even  less  com- 
fortable bed-fellows.  Nevertheless,  the  mission- 
ary did  not  quit;  he  finished  the  schoolhouse, 
found  the  money  to  pay  the  contractor,  tutored 
some  boys  for  the  Cambridge  examinations  and 
turned  the  money  in  to  pay  for  a  Chinese  preacher, 
put  in  enough  time  on  the  polyglot  languages  of 
the  district  to  make  himself  understood,  and 
when  I  visited  him  was  on  good  terms  with 
everybody  in  town. 

The  missionary  who  cannot  stand  such  acid 
tests  as  these  need  not  apply  for  the  job. 

Many  a  time  I  have  had  a  missionary  take 
me  out  over  his  field  and  after  showing  me  some- 
thing of  the  vast  extent  of  his  work,  exclaim, 
"There  is  no  job  in  the  homeland  as  big  as  this." 
Missionaries  in  these  days  do  not  talk  much 
about  personal  sacrifices,  although  they  have  to 
make  them,  but  so  does  the  railway  builder,  the 
mining  engineer,  the  consular  official,  the  mer- 
chant. In  these  days  men  are  not  speaking  with 
pride  of  the  discomforts  they  endure,  but  of 
the  accomplishments  in  which  they  have  a  part. 

Harry  Caldwell,  a  missionary  from  Yenping, 
China,  came  home  the  other  day  with  a  record 
of  having  made  peace  between  the  provincial 
military  governor  and  twenty  bands  of  brigands 
ranging  in  size  from  three  hundred  to  two  thou- 
sand men  in  each  band.  In  addition  he  killed 
seven  tigers,  saved  a  city  of  forty  thousand 
people  from  a  revolution,  and  brought  home 
[67] 


THE  DEMOCRATIC  MOVEMENT  IN  ASIA 

seven  thousand  specimens  for  the  Natural  His- 
tory Museum  in  New  York. 

When  the  city  of  Nanking  was  besieged  by  the 
forces  of  Chang  Hsun  in  one  of  the  recent  revolu- 
tions and  the  defending  forces  were  exhausted 
after  seventy-two  hours  of  continuous  fighting, 
they  went  to  Dr.  W.  E.  Macklin,  a  missionary, 
and  said,  "You  know  this  man  Chang.  Will 
you  please  go  out  and  negotiate  with  him.^  Tell 
him  that  we  are  perfectly  willing  to  keep  on 
fighting.  We  don't  want  to  surrender,  but  we 
must  have  some  sleep.  Ask  him  for  a  truce 
for  a  few  hours  until  we  get  rested.  Then  we 
will  fight  some  more." 

Dr.  Macklin  explained  that  such  courtesies  are 
not  usually  extended  in  modern  warfare,  but 
he  did  go  out  to  make  a  peace  which  saved  the 
city  from  destruction.  He  made  Chang  Hsun 
agree  not  to  loot  the  city  when  he  occupied  it 
and  when  the  wily  general  broke  faith  with  the 
missionary  a  few  days  later  and  allowed  his 
troops  to  go  "on  the  loose"  for  a  few  hours,  it 
was  the  aged  Dr.  Macklin  who  went  before  the 
general  again  and  compelled  him  to  return  to 
his  previous  pledge. 

The  missionary  task  is  so  complex  and  has  so 
many  sides  to  it  that  no  talent  which  a  man 
has  is  wasted.  If  he  has  skill  in  the  use  of  lan- 
guages, he  may  at  length  find  himself  seated 
around  a  long  table  with  a  group  of  native  pundits 
or  literati,  compiling  a  dictionary  which  for 
the  first  time  reduces  to  exact  statement  the 
[  68  ] 


^^^s 


BUILDERS  OF  CIVILIZATION 


ages  of  a  hundred  generations.  If  the  mis- 
sionary develops  a  special  ability  to  handle 
business  affairs,  there  is  the  large  volume  of 
mission  business  to  care  for,  the  purchase  of 
property,  the  disbursement  of  funds,  the  keeping 
of  accounts.  There  is  an  increasing  demand  on 
the  mission  field  for  the  highly  trained  specialist. 
Efficient  administration  demands  that  respon- 
sibilities be  locaHzed  and  fixed  with  those  who 
are  especially  competent.  In  looking  over  a 
list  of  positions  which  are  now  open  in  various 
mission  fields  I  notice  needs  for  printers,  man- 
agers, agricultural  directors,  shopmen,  and  archi- 
tects. The  time  will  come  when  all  missionaries 
can  be  selected  with  reference  to  similar  technical 
qualification.  Meanwhile,  the  man  who  knows  a 
little  about  all  these  trades  and  professions  as 
well  as  several  more  will  find  when  he  arrives  on 
his  field  that  no  talent  is  to  be  wasted.  There 
is  no  task  like  that  of  the  missionary's  to  throw 
a  man  on  his  own  resources  and  thus  develop 
within  him  every  least  ability  he  may  possess. 

Tact,  common  sense,  and  everlasting  pertinacity 
are  among  the  first  essentials.  A  certain  mis- 
sionary a  few  years  ago  was  sent  to  a  remote 
island  in  the  tropics,  which  was  governed  by  a 
few  very  literal -minded  officials.  They  had 
made  an  arrangement  by  which  areas  for  mission 
work  were  portioned  out  to  different  missions, 
thus  preventing  missionaries  of  different  denom- 
inations from  occupying  the  same  field.  This 
particular  area  had  been  assigned  to  a  mission 
[69] 


THE  DEMOCRATIC  MOVEMENT  IN  ASIA 

which  had  never  occupied  it.  There  never  had 
been  a  reallotment  of  territory,  and  according 
to  the  law  the  new  missionary  could  not  legally 
conduct  a  preaching  service  anywhere  in  that 
region. 

"What  constitutes  a  preaching  service?"  asked 
the  missionary. 

The  official  pondered  the  matter,  consulted  his 
orders,  and  explained  that  a  preaching  service 
is  committed  when  there  is  a  regular  preacher 
who  takes  a  text  and  stands  up  to  preach  a 
sermon  just  as  they  do  at  home. 

"Very  well,"  replied  the  missionary,  feeling 
sure  of  the  good  disposition  of  the  Government, 
"I  will  comply  with  the  law."  He  gathered  his 
people,  sat  on  the  floor,  made  them  do  likewise, 
and  made  an  exposition  of  the  Bible  without 
taking  a  text.  When  one  of  the  hearers  asked 
for  baptism  he  took  him  in  a  canoe  outside  the 
three-mile  limit  and  baptized  him  with  a  broken 
cocoanut  shell.  The  Government  was  not  slow 
to  discover  that  the  missionary  was  not  only 
in  earnest,  but  also  a  great  aid  to  good  adminis- 
tration in  the  island.  Recently  this  missionary 
has  returned  home  with  the  proposition  from  this 
same  government  that  if  he  will  find  the  mis- 
sionary doctors  to  take  charge,  the  Government 
will  erect  no  less  than  eight  hospitals  and  turn 
them  over  to  the  missionaries  to  administer. 

An   instance  recently  came  to  my  notice   in 
Kuala  Lumpur,  the  capital  of  the  rubber  country 
in  the  Malay  Peninsula,  which  shows  how  a  man 
[7QJ 


I 


BUILDERS  OF  CIVILIZATION 


ay  be  called  upon  to  draw  on  all  his  talent 
at  once. 

A  group  of  Chinese  immigrants  had  squatted 
on  the  uncleared  land  of  a  rubber  plantation, 
with  the  permission  of  the  company.  When 
the  time  came  to  plant  trees  the  colony  was 
dispossessed.  At  first  the  squatters  seemed  very 
unhappy  over  the  transaction,  feeling  that  they 
had  been  used  to  clear  the  land,  and  were  being 
ejected  with  too  Kttle  ceremony.  However,  on 
thinking  the  matter  over,  they  concluded  that 
they  had  learned  a  valuable  lesson.  They  had 
discovered  that  the  soil  was  very  rich.  There- 
fore they  sent  their  preacher — for  they  were  a 
Christian  colony — to  the  missionary.  Reverend 
George  Frederick  Pykett,  to  make  the  following 
proposition : 

"You  go  to  the  Government  and  secure  for  us 
an  allotment  of  five  acres  apiece  of  raw  jungle 
land  (there  were  five  hundred  families),  and  we 
will  clear  it,  plant  it  with  rubber  trees,  and 
establish  a  Christian  village." 

Mr.  Pykett  was  shy.  The  preacher  was  him- 
self a  rubber  planter  of  some  experience  and 
success;  he  was  serving  his  charge  without  salary, 
but  an  old  axiom  stood  in  the  way.  It  was  not 
safe,  ninety-nine  times  in  a  hundred,  for  the 
missionary  to  mix  up  in  the  business  affairs  of 
his  converts. 

"Very  well,"  said  the  preacher,  "then  we  will 
go  ahead  on  our  own  account." 

The  missionary  reconsidered  the  matter.  The 
[71] 


THE  DEMOCRATIC  MOVEMENT  IN  ASIA 

Chinese  are  excellent  workers  and  business  men, 
individually,  but  when  they  come  together  in 
a  cooperative  undertaking  they  usually  make  a 
bad  success  of  the  enterprise.  Cooperation  is, 
perhaps,  the  one  quality  which  the  Chinese  peo- 
ple will  have  to  learn  in  the  next  century  or  go 
under.  One  of  the  greatest  contributions  which 
the  Christian  Church  is  making  to  the  Chinese  is 
at  this  very  point.  It  teaches  them  the  methods 
of  organized  cooperation.  Mr.  Pykett  knew 
that  this  colony  stood  a  better  chance  of  success 
than  would  have  been  the  case  had  the  members 
not  been  Christians,  but  still  it  seemed  safer 
to  help  these  people,  and  keep  a  string  on  them, 
than  to  leave  them  alone.  Without  much  diffi- 
culty he  secured  the  concession  from  the  Govern- 
ment and  the  colony  was  started.  A  few  weeks 
later  the  preacher-manager  came  around  and 
presented  the  missionary  with  a  new  automobile 
and  a  Mohammedan  boy  to  drive  it. 

These  gifts  do  not  seem  too  large  in  view  of 
the  fact  that  an  acre  of  rubber  trees  brings  in  a 
profit  of  about  $1,200  a  year.  These  families  had 
probably  never  had  a  third  of  that  sum  to  live 
on  in  Fukien,  from  which  province  they  had 
migrated  to  Kuala  Lumpur. 

The  most  remarkable  fact  with  reference  to 
the  gift,  however,  was  not  the  gratitude  of  the 
colony  or  the  rather  extraordinary  good  fortune 
of  the  missionary,  but  that  the  car  was  pro- 
vided for  the  express  purpose  of  conveying  Mrs. 
Pykett  more  frequently  than  would  otherwise 
[72] 


THESE  NEGRITO  CHILDREN  LIVE 
IN  THE  FORESTS  OF  LUZON.  THE 
ONLY  AMERICANS  THEY  EVER  SEE 
ARE  THE  GOVERNMENT  OFFICIALS 
AND  THE  MISSIONARY  WHO  COMES 
ONCE  A  MONTH  TO  INSPECT  THE 
SCHOOL  WitlCH  THE  MISSION  HAS 
ESTABLISHED. 


CO.     ,•, 


BUILDERS  OF  CIVILIZATION 

have  been  possible  to  visit  the  new  plantation. 
The  colonists  realized  that  it  would  be  very 
difficult  to  have  a  model  Christian  colony  with- 
out some  attention  to  the  wife  problem.  At 
this  point  Mrs.  Pykett's  good  offices  were  so 
highly  prized  that  they  were  worth  the  gift  of 
a  motor  car. 

There  is  no  pathos  in  all  Asia  quite  equal  to 
that  of  a  Christian  home  where  the  wife  is  still 
enthralled  in  the  customs  and  superstitions  of 
her  grandmothers.  The  children  receive  the 
advantages  of  at  least  a  rudimentary  Christian 
education,  the  husband,  moving  about  in  the 
Christian  community,  comes  in  frequent  touch 
with  the  missionary,  and  quickly  catches  the 
new  pace  which  is  set  for  him.  Too  often  his 
wife  lags  behind.  She  had  no  education  to  be- 
gin with,  and  the  traditions  of  her  race  do  not 
permit  her  much  freedom  of  movement  outside 
her  home.  The  full  impact  of  Christianity  can- 
not be  made  on  the  Orient  until  father  and 
mother,  as  well  as  the  children,  are  products  of 
the  Christian  school. 

Meanwhile  there  are  many  situations  such  as 
that  in  Kuala  Lumpur  where  the  missionary  wife 
is  urgently  needed,  although  there  are  seldom 
motor  cars  to  bring  her. 

Do  the  missionaries  live  in  too  fine  houses? 
I  am  frequently  asked  this  question.  Reports 
go  broadcast  that  missionaries  live  in  luxury 
such  as  they  could  never  attain  at  home  and 
that  many  of  them  deliberately  choose  the  mis- 
[73] 


THE  DEMOCRATIC  MOVEMENT  IN  ASIA 

sion  field  because  it  offers  an  easy  life.  My 
observation  is  that  missionaries  usually  live  well, 
although  I  know  many  who  live  in  houses  which 
are  hardly  more  than  unsanitary  hovels.  A 
mission  station  is  usually  a  group  of  buildings 
within  a  compound.  This  compound  bears  the 
same  relation  to  the  surroundings  that  a  social 
settlement  bears  to  a  congested  city  block.  The 
houses  are  better  constructed,  the  grounds  are 
better  cared  for,  sanitation  is  developed  with 
care.  It  is  very  essential  that  missionaries  should 
live  well.  Their  health  must  be  protected.  Fur- 
loughs come  only  once  in  from  five  to  seven 
years,  although  commercial  houses  usually  pro- 
vide for  more  frequent  visits  home  for  their 
employes.  When  a  missionary  or  any  member 
of  his  family  falls  ill  and  has  to  return  home 
for  medical  treatment,  some  large  piece  of  work 
is  paralyzed  and  there  is  a  serious  loss  on  the 
investment  which  the  missionary  society  has 
made.  Missionary  salaries  range  from  nine  to 
fifteen  hundred  dollars,  gold,  a  year.  Although 
the  cost  of  living  in  Asia  has  risen  quite  as  rapidly 
as  it  has  in  the  West  in  the  last  few  years,  there 
has  been  very  little  readjustment  of  salaries. 
Many  missionaries  in  the  last  year  have  con- 
fessed to  me  that  they  are  each  month  running 
deeper  into  debt.  No,  the  missionary  does  nol 
live  too  well. 

Some  months  ago  I  made  a  trip  up  the  Mi 
River  in  the  province  of  Fukien  from  Foocho^ 
to  Yenping.    The  larger  part  of  the  journey  wi 
[74] 


BUILDERS  OF  CIVILIZATION 


I 

^Haade  on  a  launch  less  than  seventy -five  feet  long, 
^ftn  which  were  loaded  no  less  than  two  hundred 
and  seventy  Chinese.  It  was  in  the  spring,  be- 
tween seasons,  too  early  for  Chinese  summer 
clothing,  too  hot  for  the  closely  bound  padded 
garments  which  the  Chinese  put  on  in  the  fall 
and  do  not  take  off  again  until  spring.  The 
odors  were  such  as  one  wishes  to  forget.  When 
I  ate  my  breakfast  the  entire  two  hundred  and 
seventy  passengers  crowded  about  me  so  closely 
that  the  captain  had  to  order  them  away  to 
avoid  capsizing  the  craft.  While  eating  one  had 
to  steer  carefully  to  get  the  food  into  the  right 
mouth.  I  spent  an  entire  day  on  this  launch, 
from  two  o'clock  in  the  morning  until  four  the 
next  afternoon.  My  only  European  companions 
were  two  missionary  ladies  and  three  small  chil- 
dren. I  cannot  dwell  on  the  details  of  the  trip, 
but  I  had  the  feeling  before  it  was  over  that  if 
these  missionary  families  had  been  returning  to 
live  in  marble  halls  or  gold-bedecked  palaces 
the  compensation  for  the  horrors  of  the  journey 
would  be  entirely  inadequate.  Yet  when  I  told 
them  how  I  felt,  they  assured  me  that  we  were 
fortunate  in  having  a  relatively  comfortable  trip. 
One  of  the  ladies  had,  a  few  months  before,  been 
compelled  to  bring  her  two  babies,  ill  with  a 
raging  fever,  down  on  this  same  journey. 

A  missionary's  home,  as  has  been  said,  is  like 
a  social  settlement  in  the  congested  portion  of 
some  American  city.     It  serves  the  double  pur- 
pose  of  shelter  for  the  missionary   family   and 
[75] 


THE  DEMOCRATIC  MOVEMENT  IN  ASIA 

actual  demonstration  of  Christian  standards  of 
living  for  the  neighborhood.  The  home  is  open 
to  all  and  there  is  a  never-ending  stream  of 
visitors.  They  notice  the  screens  on  the  win- 
dows and  receive  an  explanation  as  to  why  the 
screens  are  necessary  to  health  as  well  as  to 
comfort.  They  cannot  fail  to  compare  their 
own  stuffy,  almost  unlighted  rooms  with  those 
in  which  the  missionary  lives.  No  detail  of 
housekeeping  escapes  their  wondering  gaze.  But, 
best  of  all,  the  men  who  come  there  have  an 
object-lesson  as  to  the  Christian  valuation  of 
womanhood.  They  see  the  wife  treated  not  as 
a  slave  or  as  a  servant,  but  as  a  partner.  She 
not  only  sits  at  the  dinner-table  with  her  hus- 
band, but  is  actually  served  first. 

The  popular  imagination  usually  locates  the 
missionary  in  village  or  rural  surroundings.  As 
a  matter  of  fact,  most  missionaries  live  in  fairly 
large  centers  of  population  and  many  of  them 
in  very  large  cities.  The  problems  of  Christianity 
in  Asia  are  not  merely  rural.  Japan,  China, 
Korea,  the  Philippines,  Malaysia,  and  India  all 
have  their  city  problems,  which  are  becoming 
increasingly  dijQScult.  The  cities  of  Asia  are 
growing  rapidly.  There  is  a  movement  from 
village  to  city,  just  as  there  is  in  the  western 
world.  Every  nation  has  its  "City  of  Dreadful 
Night."  The  darkest  spot  in  the  world  is  not  in 
London,  Paris,  New  York,  or  Chicago.  It  is  in 
Tokyo,  Shanghai,  Calcutta,  Bombay,  or  Madras. 
The  missionary  has,  therefore,  to  develop  a  new 
[76] 


BUILDERS  OF  CIVILIZATION 


I 

^■echnique  for  the  evangelization  of  the  cities 
^■>f  Asia.  The  scattering  of  tracts,  the  opening 
of  day  schools,  and  the  building  of  chapels  are 
entirely  inadequate.  There  is  need  of  play- 
grounds, gymnasiums,  clean  "movies,"  reading- 
rooms,  day  nurseries,  and  all  the  devices  of  the 

stitutional  church. 

Indeed,  institutional  churches  are  now  being 
established  in  many  of  the  large  cities.  In  China 
the  movement  began  in  Foochow  several  years 
ago  when  an  alert  missionary,  who  never  allowed 
himself  to  be  encumbered  by  traditions,  went 
down  into  the  center  of  the  city,  rented  a  fine 
old  residence  and  launched  a  full-grown  social 
settlement  and  church  with  resident  workers, 
kindergarten,  cooking  classes,  and  boys'  clubs, 
as  well  as  religious  services.  Here  the  Christians 
from  the  educated  and  wealthier  classes  may 
meet  with  the  Christians  who  once  were  coolies. 
They  learn  to  know  each  other  and  in  being 
brought  face  to  face  have  set  before  them  for 
the  first  time  the  essential  lessons  of  civic  and 
social  responsibility. 

The  impression  is  not  uncommon  that  the 
missionary  has  only  to  do  with  the  lower  classes 
of  people.  I  have  often  heard  this  statement 
made  in  the  hotels  and  on  shipboard  by  tourists 
and  merchants.  Nothing  could  be  farther  from 
the  truth. 

Each  missionary  creates  his  own  constituency. 
He  associates  with  the  same  kind  of  people  in 
China  or  in  India  as  he  would  associate  with 
[77] 


THE  DEMOCRATIC  MOVEMENT  IN  ASIA 

at  home.  Quality  recognizes  quality  the  world 
over.  I  have  never  yet  sought  an  introduction 
to  any  distinguished  Oriental,  no  matter  how 
high  his  degree,  when  I  could  not  find  some 
missionary  who  could  with  all  propriety  bring 
about  the  meeting,  although  by  no  means  every 
missionary  one  meets  is  prepared  to  do  this. 

If  I  wished  to  make  a  detailed  investigation 
of  the  exact  status  of  the  Home  Rule  movement 
in  India  today,  I  would  go  with  the  missionaries 
out  into  the  villages.  There  I  would  learn  what 
no  government  official  or  upper-class  Indian 
gentleman  could  tell  me.  If  I  wanted  to  know 
the  extent  of  the  present  division  between  the 
North  and  the  South  in  China,  I  know  of  mis- 
sionaries who  could  lead  me  to  more  accurate 
and  extensive  information  on  that  subject  than 
I  could  gather  from  any  consular  officer  or  from 
any  official  in  Peking.  More  and  more  in  the 
non-Christian  countries  the  common  people  are 
coming  into  places  of  influence.  They  are  be- 
coming the  determining  force  and  the  missionary 
knows  them  through  and  through. 

It  may  be  many  decades,  even  centuries, 
before  democracy  appears  in  its  noonday  splendor 
among  the  backward  nations,  but  none  the  less 
the  day  of  the  common  people  is  dawning.  The 
most  marked  feature  of  the  Orient  today  is  the 
drift  toward  democracy.  In  the  creation  of 
this  movement  the  missionary,  particularly  the 
American  missionary,  has  had  a  very  large  part. 
He  teaches  the  people  to  read  and  to  think 
[78] 


BUILDERS  OF  CIVILIZATION 

together.  The  Methodist  Episcopal  Mission  in 
Hinghwa,  China,  for  example,  publishes  the 
only  newspaper  for  more  than  three  million 
people.  The  American  missionary  is  himself  a 
democrat.  He  fairly  exudes  democracy  wherever 
he  goes.  He  demands  religious  liberty,  preaches 
the  brotherhood  of  men  high  and  low,  gives 
himself  to  the  care  of  the  unfit  and  the  weak 
who  are  so  often  trampled  under  foot  by  the 
backward  races,  and  sets  before  people  the  Bible, 
which  has  ever  been  the  inspiration  of  democratic 
movements.  The  missionary  becomes  uncon- 
sciously the  builder  of  a  new  civilization  or  at 
least  of  a  new  social  ideal.  Whatever  he  builds 
is  democratic.  It  must  be,  from  the  very  nature 
of  the  instruction.  The  missionary  not  only 
reaches  the  influential  people  of  the  community; 
he  creates  them. 

The  day's  labor  for  a  missionary  is  usually  a 
strange  mixture  of  the  commonplace,  the  extra- 
ordinary, and  the  fundamental.  I  was  once 
allowed  to  accompany  one  for  a  day  in  India. 
Here  is  an  outline  of  our  program.  We  rode 
bicycles  to  the  railway  station,  and  took  the 
train  for  a  twenty-mile  ride  up  the  line.  There 
we  left  our  bicycles  in  the  care  of  the  station 
master,  and  mounted  camels  for  a  most  excruci- 
ating trip  across  the  fields  to  some  Christian 
villages.  We  hung  on  with  both  hands,  while 
diminutive  boys,  who  were  hardly  taller  than 
the  camels'  knees,  led  the  way  through  the 
glaring,  hot  sand. 

[79] 


THE  DEMOCRATIC  MOVEMENT  IN  ASIA 

At  the  first  village  we  were  greeted  by  the 
preacher,  who  introduced  us  to  his  wife  and  two 
babies  and  then  escorted  us  to  the  outcaste 
section  of  the  village,  where  a  service  was  held, 
followed  by  baptisms.  The  preacher  had  been 
a  Brahmin.  Now  he  stood  in  the  midst  of  a 
village  which  to  enter  would  be  defilement  for 
any  caste  man  and,  grasping  the  headman's  hand, 
called  him  "Brother."  In  this  we  witnessed  the 
laying  of  the  only  foundation  stone  on  which 
caste-divided  India  can  ever  build  republican 
institutions. 

The  missionary  preceded  the  baptism  in  each 
ease  by  pulling  some  scissors  from  his  pocket 
and  cutting  the  long  scalp  lock  which  every 
Hindu  wears,  so  long  as  he  keeps  his  loyalty  to 
Hinduism.  The  ceremony  took  place  in  the 
center  of  the  village,  under  a  tree,  the  brown 
mud  walls  of  the  houses  rising  on  every  side. 
First  the  men  were  baptized  and  then  the  women, 
who  squatted  in  a  little  group  far  off  at  one  side. 
After  the  service  there  was  lusty  singing,  a 
prayer,  and  then  some  sweetmeats.  An  old  lady 
came  up  to  the  missionary,  stepped  out  of  her 
shoes,  made  obeisance,  touching  her  forehead  to 
the  ground,  and  begged  him  to  inquire  about 
her  son  who  had  been  missing  from  home  for 
several  months.  She  feared  that  he  had  been 
kidnapped  and  sent  as  an  indentured  laborer 
to  the  Fiji  Islands. 

At  the  next  village  a  similar  service  was  held 
and  all  the  men  of  the  village  followed  their 
[80] 


THIS  BAPTISMAL  SERVICE  IN  Ajf 
INDIAN  VILLAGE  IS  QUITE  TYPICAL 
OF  THE  WAY  IN  WHICH  THE  MISSION- 
ARY WORKS.  THE  PEOPLE  ARE  OUT- 
CASTES:  THE  VILLAGE  PREACHER 
AND  TEACHER  WAS  FORMERLY  A 
BRAHMIN. 


BUILDERS  OF  CIVILIZATION 

departing  guests,  single  file  across  the  fields,  as 
a  mark  of  respect.  At  the  railway  station  we  had 
our  lunch  which  we  had  brought  with  us  from 
home,  drank  distilled  water  for  which  our  parched 
throats  had  been  crying  in  the  villages  where 
to  drink  such  water  as  was  offered  would  have 
meant  suicide,  and  then  jumped  on  the  bicycles 
for  a  ten-mile  journey  to  another  village  where 
a  new  church  was  just  being  erected.  The  night 
before  we  arrived  at  this  village  there  had  been 
an  anti-Christian  riot,  in  which  several  converts 
had  been  beaten  and  it  had  been  necessary  to 
smuggle  the  women  away  for  security.  The 
missionary  inspected  the  new  building,  and  coun- 
seled with  the  preacher  about  the  riot.  He  also 
had  a  conference  with  the  school-teacher,  and 
then  we  started  on  for  another  ten  miles  to  an 
Indian  mud-house,  where  we  had  our  dinner. 
From  this  village  we  took  the  train  again  and 
reached  home  just  before  midnight. 

One  may  dwell  upon  any  aspect  of  such  a  day 
as  pleases  the  imagination.  The  railway  train 
and  the  camels  traveled  side  by  side;  the  bicycles 
passed  a  procession  of  shuffling  elephants  in  the 
dusk  of  evening.  The  Brahmin  stood  by  the 
outcaste,  the  woman  grovelled  in  the  dust. 
The  churchyard  was  trampled  by  a  mob  which 
had  threatened  to  kill  the  Christian  converts. 
The  mob  had  been  restrained  by  fear  of  the 
police,  who  represent  the  British  Raj  and  are 
sworn  to  uphold  religious  liberty  in  the  land. 
More  than  once  we  overtook  the  bearers  of 
[81] 


THE  DEMOCRATIC  MOVEMENT  IN  ASIA 

crude  biers  on  which  were  stretched  the  white- 
robed  victims  of  the  plague,  whom  the  disease 
had  smitten  that  very  day.  These  Httle  pro- 
cessions were  on  their  way  to  the  burning-ghats 
of  the  Ganges.  But  all  these  events  belong  with 
the  externals. 

The  important  fact  to  remember  is  that  here 
is  a  man,  by  birth  separated  as  light  is  separated 
from  darkness  from  his  neighbors  and  his  parish- 
ioners, who  has  chosen  to  cross  the  gulf  and 
share  his  life,  his  ideals,  his  faith,  his  standards 
of  living  with  them.  He  preaches  not  merely 
by  what  he  says,  but  most  emphatically  of  all 
by  being  there.  He  exposes  himself  to  the  most 
searching  examination,  day  after  day,  year  after 
year.  His  life  is  an  open  book,  the  only  book  of 
any  sort  which  the  vast  majority  of  the  people 
can  read.  Every  day  is  a  fight,  a  struggle  with 
himself,  a  struggle  with  a  social  order  ages  old 
which  knows  not  yet  how  to  make  life  livable  or 
death  dieable.  To  his  house  by  the  side  of  the 
road  come  the  most  friendless  of  all  God's  crea- 
tures, and  out  from  the  doors  of  that  home  go 
influences  for  the  wellbeing  of  the  world  which 
no  man  can  measure. 

The  two  turning  points  in  missionary  history, 
so  far  as  the  selection  of  personnel  is  concerned, 
are  the  organization  of  the  Student  Volunteer 
Movement  thirty-two  years  ago  and  the  Edin- 
burgh Conference  on  Foreign  Missions  in  1910. 
The  former  modified  all  the  later  development 
of  mission  work  by  laying  the  responsibility  of 
[82] 


BUILDERS  OF  CIVILIZATION 

volunteering  on  the  student  bodies  of  the  various 
colleges  rather  than  on  the  churches.  At  Edin- 
burgh new  standards  of  efficiency  were  so  empha- 
sized and  defined  that  every  phase  of  missionary 
organization  and  administration  took  on  new 
vitality. 

A  brief  outline  of  the  various  roads  which  a 
young  missionary  recruit  now  has  to  travel 
before  he  is  actually  installed  in  his  work  on 
the  foreign  field  may  be  illuminating.  Presumably 
he  either  becomes  a  Student  Volunteer  while  in 
college  or  at  least  receives  there  the  impetus 
which  eventually  leads  him  to  make  applica- 
tion to  the  Board  of  Foreign  Missions  of  his 
denomination  to  be  sent  out  as  a  missionary. 
There  was  a  time,  not  many  decades  ago,  when 
his  application  had  to  be  accompanied  with  the 
promise  that  he  would  offer  himself  to  go  when- 
ever and  wherever  his  church  might  wish  to 
send  him.  Meanwhile  he  would  continue  his 
course  of  general  study  in  college  and  later  enter 
some  theological  seminary  or  a  medical  school. 
Practically  all  special  training  for  his  work  was 
deferred  until  he  reached  the  field.  The  result 
frequently  was  that  he  never  had  any  special 
training  at  all.  The  Edinburgh  Conference  re- 
ceived the  astonishing  report  that  forty-seven 
per  cent  of  the  missionaries  on  the  field  could 
not  speak  the  language  of  the  people  with  whom 
they  were  supposed  to  work. 

Now,  however,  the  volunteer  usually  offers 
himself  for  some  special  kind  of  work.  Each 
[83] 


THE  DEMOCRATIC  MOVEMENT  IN  ASIA 

mission  board  keeps  a  list  of  positions  for  which 
men  or  women  are  needed.  Many  of  these 
openings  call  for  highly  technical  training.  Just 
now,  for  example,  there  is  a  very  great  demand 
for  various  kinds  of  educational  experts:  men 
competent  to  take  charge  of  commercial  schools 
which  teach  book-keeping,  stenography,  type- 
writing, and  business  methods;  shop-men  for  tech- 
nical courses;  agricultural  directors;  and  music 
teachers.  There  is  also  urgent  need  for  archi- 
tects to  superintend  the  vast  building  operations 
which  are  continually  being  inaugurated,  athletic 
directors,  printers,  and  trained  nurses. 

One  important  result  of  the  Edinburgh  Con- 
ference was  the  establishment  of  a  Board  of 
Missionary  Preparation  in  the  United  States; 
this  drew  up  a  standard  list  of  courses  which 
ought  to  go  into  the  preparation  of  the  mission- 
ary for  his  task.  After  that  came  the  Hartford 
School  of  Missions,  and,  later,  the  establishment 
of  departments  of  missions,  or  professorships,  in 
all  the  leading  theological  seminaries.  Coordinate 
with  this  was  the  institution  of  Union  Language 
Schools  in  important  centers  in  the  Orient.  Now 
a  Student  Volunteer  has  laid  out  for  him  a  long 
course  of  study  and  preparation,  which,  after  he 
leaves  college,  is  being  constantly  aimed  to 
prepare  him  for  his  specific  task.  Even  after 
the  candidate  has  arrived  in  the  field  of  his 
labors  he  must  still  submit  to  the  test  of  his 
fitness  to  take  up  the  work.  If,  after  two  or 
three  years,  he  has  proved  unequal  to  the  dif- 
[84] 


I 


BUILDERS  OF  CIVILIZATION 


cult  task  of  learning  the  language,  or  fails 
in  ability  to  come  into  sympathetic  relations 
with  the  people,  he  will  probably  have  to  return 
home.  Some  mission  stations  even  have  the 
right  to  decide  on  the  congeniality  of  the  candi- 
date as  a  fellow-worker. 

Meanwhile,  between  the  day  he  volunteers 
and  the  time  of  his  departure  for  his  work,  there 
are  the  questions  of  health  and  marriage  to 
consider.  I  have  heard  of  one  man  who  was 
given  no  less  than  seven  medical  examinations. 
If  a  married  man  is  to  be  sent,  experience  has 
demonstrated  times  without  number  that  his 
future  usefulness  will  depend  not  more  upon 
his  health  than  upon  his  wife.  Many  women, 
for  example,  cannot  stand  the  tropics.  Again, 
the  candidate  may  be  impelled  by  some  evil 
genius  to  take  one  final  fling  before  he  enters 
his  consecrated  work  by  marrying  a  not  ade- 
quately consecrated  wife.  That  will  mean  im- 
paired usefulness  from  the  day  he  begins  his 
work  and  probably  an  early  return,  with  a  con- 
sequent loss  of  a  considerable  investment  by 
the  missionary  organization.  It  is  generally 
reckoned  that  no  missionary  can  attain  his  max- 
imum usefulness  until  after  he  has  had  five  or 
six  years'  experience  with  the  language  and  the 
people.  Even  though  this  apparently  rude  in- 
vasion of  a  domain  where  one  is  usually  assumed 
to  have  the  power  of  the  freest  choice  will  seem 
intolerable,  it  is  none  the  less  necessary  and 
based  on  the  soundest  of  experience.  My  ob- 
[85] 


THE  DEMOCRATIC  MOVEMENT  IN  ASIA 

servation  is  that  American  business  houses  in 
the  Orient  could  doubtless  increase  the  efficiency 
of  their  staffs  very  largely  if  only  they  could 
exercise  a  similar  supervision  of  their  employes 
in  the  matter  of  marriage. 

All  these  various  tests  of  a  candidate's  ability 
to  do  the  work  are  subordinate  to  questions  of 
character.  Before  young  men  or  young  women 
are  sent  to  the  foreign  field  they  must  come 
before  an  examining  board  of  thoroughly  com- 
petent people  and  give  evidence  of  personal 
character  and  of  personality  which  will  justify 
the  continuation  of  the  preparation.  Small 
wonder  is  it,  therefore,  that  only  about  one  in 
twenty  of  those  who  apply  for  missionary  work 
ever  reach  the  field. 

One  may  readily  see  that  the  new  type  of 
missionary  must  be  an  all-round  man.  He  is 
an  unofficial  ambassador  for  his  government, 
creating  good  will  and  sympathetic  understanding; 
he  is  a  peace-maker,  interpreter,  and  builder  of 
new  social  and  economic  orders.  He  may  become 
even  a  statesman,  whose  advice  and  counsel  is 
sought  and  valued  by  governments. 


[86] 


THE  MISSIONARY  SCHOOLMASTER 


CHAPTER  V 
THE  MISSIONARY  SCHOOLMASTER 

Thirty-two  years  ago  a  steamer  anchored  at 
Woosung  at  the  mouth  of  the  Yangtze  to  dis- 
charge passengers  for  Shanghai.  One  of  them 
was  a  young  American  by  the  name  of  Hawks 
Pott,  from  New  York,  a  missionary  sent  out  by 
the  Protestant  Episcopal  Church  to  join  the  staff 
of  St.  John's  College.  But  the  college  was  no 
college  at  all;  it  was  only  a  low-grade  boarding 
school  with  sixty  boys,  all  of  whom  were  on  a 
charity  basis.  Even  their  shoes  were  given  to 
them.  The  prospects  for  a  real  college  must 
have  seemed  rather  dim. 

However,  about  that  time  the  Chinese  of 
Shanghai  began  to  wake  up  to  the  necessity  of 
learning  to  use  English.  The  foreigners  were 
coming  there  in  large  numbers  to  do  business. 
They  had  not  the  patience  to  learn  Chinese,  so 
some  of  the  wealthy  merchants  of  the  city  went 
to  St.  John's  and  asked  that  their  boys  be  ad- 
mitted to  learn  the  foreigners'  language.  "Of 
course  you  understand  that  St.  John's  is  a  mis- 
sionary school  .f^"  Yes,  they  understood  that, 
and  were  willing  to  take  the  chances  of  their 
sons  being  converted.  "Very  well,  then,  they 
can  come  if  you  are  willing  to  pay  for  the  teach- 
ing." The  day  those  boys  entered  the  school  as 
[89] 


THE  DEMOCRATIC  MOVEMENT  IN  ASIA 

paying  pupils  marked  a  new  stage  in  the  history 
of  the  institution. 

Recently  I  had  the  privilege  of  calling  on  this 
missionary  who  was  put  ashore  at  Woosung 
thirty-two  years  ago.  I  found  him  in  the  pres- 
ident's office,  the  director  of  a  university  which 
has  833  students,  forty-five  teachers,  six  college 
departments,  and  one  of  the  most  attractive 
campuses  I  have  seen  the  world  over. 

"Let  me  see,"  said  Dr.  Pott,  running  through 
the  pages  of  the  St.  John's  Alumni  Catalogue, 
"of  course  you  know  Wellington  Koo.  He  is 
one  of  my  boys.  Then  there  is  Alfred  Sze,  the 
Chinese  minister  in  London,  and  Dr.  Yen,  who 
has  been  the  Chinese  minister  in  Berlin;  they 
also  are  graduates  of  St.  John's." 

Not  a  bad  record,  that,  for  a  single  missionary 
college  to  have  tutored  the  three  foreign  repre- 
sentatives of  China  upon  whom  has  fallen  the 
heaviest  burden  of  Chinese  diplomacy  during 
these  last  few  critical  years!  After  St.  John's 
had  done  for  them  what  it  could.  Dr.  Pott  had 
directed  them  to  the  United  States  to  finish  their 
training  at  Cornell  and  Columbia. 

Dr.  Pott  modestly  continued  through  his 
alumni  lists,  mentioning  a  score  more  of  names 
of  his  other  graduates  who  were  occupying  places 
of  trust  and  great  responsibility;  men  like  Dr. 
Tsur,  then  president  of  Tsing  Hua  College,  where 
the  indemnity  students  are  selected  and  prepared 
for  America,  and  the  president  of  the  Hanyang 
Iron  Works.  St.  John's  still  lays  special  stress 
[90] 


DAVID  YU,  NOW  GENERAL  SECRE- 
TARY OF  THE  INTERNATIONAL  COM 
MITTEE  OF  THE  Y.  M.  C.  A.  IN  CHINA, 
WAS  FORMERLY  A  LECTURER  ON 
JAPAN.  THIS  WAS  ONE  OF  HIS  EX- 
HIBITS SHOWING  china's  INSECURE 
EDUCATIONAL  FOUNDATION  AS  COM- 
PARED WITH  THE  UNITED  STATES, 
GERMANY,  ENGLAND,  AND  JAPAN. 
THE  BASES  OF  THESE  CUBES  SHOW 
THE  PROPORTION  OF  LITERACY  RELA- 
TIVE TO  THE  TOTAL  POPULATION. 


THE  MISSIONARY  SCHOOLMASTER 

on  the  teaching  of  English  and  is  educating  the 
sons  of  some  of  the  most  distinguished  families 
in  China.  The  university  is  by  no  means  self- 
supporting,  any  more  than  are  our  American 
universities,  but  the  receipts  from  tuition  are 
about  $45,000,  gold,  each  year. 

This  story  suggests  something  of  the  general 
character  of  the  background  out  of  which  the 
last  three  decades  of  missionary  education  have 
come,  not  merely  in  China  but  elsewhere  in  the 
Orient.  Most  mission  colleges  were,  in  the 
beginning,  colleges  only  in  name.  In  fact,  they 
were  charity  boarding  schools.  Their  primary 
purpose,  like  that  of  our  American  colleges  in 
the  early  days,  was  to  raise  up  and  train  a  literate 
clergy.  They  had  to  take  their  pupils  unpre- 
pared, wherever  they  could  find  them.  They 
drew,  therefore,  largely  from  the  coolie,  outcaste, 
and  servant  classes.  But  today  if  you  were  per- 
mitted to  attend  the  alumni  dinner  at  the  Doshisha 
in  Kyoto,  Peking  University,  the  Anglo-Chinese 
Colleges  at  Foochow  or  Singapore,  the  American 
College  at  Madura,  the  Christian  College  at 
Lucknow,  or  Forman  College  at  Lahore,  you 
would  meet  some  of  the  most  distinguished  and 
influential  men  of  the  entire  Orient. 

There  were  the  best  of  reasons  why  the  early 
mission  colleges  and  schools  had  to  be  free  schools, 
with  even  shoes  provided.  The  missionary  had 
gone  to  an  alien  land  to  sell  a  new  idea  which 
no  one  wished  to  buy.  He  adopted  an  approved 
business  method,  selling  the  idea  on  approval, 
[91] 


THE  DEMOCRATIC  MOVEMENT  IN  ASIA 

even  going  so  far  as  to  distribute  free  samples. 
He  began  with  the  servants  of  his  own  house- 
hold, the  sons  of  his  cook,  his  bihishti,  his  gardener. 
In  that  way  the  missionary  was  able  quickly  to 
develop  native  helpers  to  assist  him  in  trans- 
lating, teaching,  and  preaching.  But  incidentally, 
or  perhaps  primarily,  he  sold  the  idea  of  Western 
learning  to  the  East. 

In  those  days  famines,  plagues,  and  floods  were 
very  common;  indeed,  they  are  still  an  annual 
menace.  They  left  in  their  wake  hosts  of  or- 
phans. The  missionary  opened  his  doors  to 
receive  these  waifs  and  then  cabled  to  America 
for  funds  to  provide  food.  The  money  was  forth- 
coming and  orphanages  were  established,  hun- 
dreds of  them.  Of  course  boys  and  girls  were 
immediately  placed  under  instruction  and  many 
of  them  have  risen  to  places  of  distinction,  thus 
proving  that  even  the  most  unpromising  material 
can  be  transformed  by  Christian  education.  The 
missions  are  now  going  out  of  the  orphanage 
business  as  rapidly  as  they  can,  for  they  have 
devised  better  and  cheaper  ways  to  provide  for 
such  victims,  but  the  orphanage  helped  consider- 
ably not  merely  to  demonstrate  the  disinterested, 
humanitarian  motive  of  the  mission  but  also  to 
prove  the  value  of  education. 

The  missionary  was  the  pioneer  of  Western 
learning  throughout  Asia.  The  East  India  Com- 
pany had  to  borrow  William  Carey  to  carry  on 
its  school  for  the  training  of  Indian  clerks;  later 
the  British  Government  took  from  Alexander 
[92] 


THE  MISSIONARY  SCHOOLMASTER 

Duff,  a  Scotch  missionary,  the  program  of  Indian 
education  which,  in  the  main,  is  still  followed. 
Japan  drew  its  first  inspiration  for  Western  edu- 
cation from  missionary  sources,  and  very  many 
of  its  older  statesmen  who  are  now  in  their  prime 
or  are  just  passing  off  the  stage  were  first  launched 
into  the  era  of  enlightenment  from  mission 
schools.  Marquis  Okuma  never  tires  of  telling 
what  he  owes  to  the  inspiration  of  such  pioneer 
missionaries  as  Verbeck.  That  Japan  can  now 
make  the  proud  boast  that  over  ninety-eight  per 
cent  of  her  school  population  is  in  school,  is  due 
in  the  first  instance  to  the  missionary.  China, 
watching  with  one  eye  what  western  learning  was 
doing  for  Japan  and  with  the  other  what  the 
mission  schools  were  doing  at  home,  kicked  over 
her  ancient  educational  system  and  started  a  new 
structure  upon  plans  first  drawn  up  by  the 
missionaries. 

The  idea  has  been  thoroughly  sold  to  Asia. 
She  now  wants,  more  than  anything  else  in  the 
world,  better  educational  facilities.  Ask  a  citizen 
of  any  Oriental  country  today  what  three  things 
he  most  desires  for  his  people.  Two  of  the  an- 
swers will  vary  according  to  the  local  conditions, 
but  one  is  uniformly  the  same  from  Sapporo  to 
Hyderabad — better  schools.  Not  all  schools  are 
so  favorably  situated  as  St.  John's  in  Shanghai. 
There  are  hundreds  of  millions  of  people  in  Asia 
whose  entire  family  income  is  not  equal  to  the 
$220.  Mex.,  which  St.  John's  is  able  to  charge 
for  tuition.  It  is  not  the  aim  of  every  school 
[93] 


THE  DEMOCRATIC  MOVEMENT  IN  ASIA 

to  become  self-supporting.  The  glory  of  the 
Christian  ideal  has  always  been  that  the  primary 
care  is  for  the  poor  and  unfortunate.  But  every 
year  the  mission  schools  are  able  to  shift  their 
work  more  from  the  purely  charity  basis  toward 
one  of  self-respecting  independence.  Western 
education  is  now  so  highly  prized  that  pupils 
and  parents  alike  are  willing  to  make  superlative 
sacrifices  to  acquire  it.  Indeed,  the  graduates  of 
mission  colleges,  and  even  natives  who  have 
not  had  the  privileges  of  such  education,  are 
already  beginning  to  make  large  gifts  for  pur- 
poses of  endowment.  Only  last  year  Mr.  Katsuka 
of  Tokyo  gave  over  $100,000  to  the  Methodist 
college  of  that  city.  The  missionary  school- 
master is  now  sailing  not  against  the  current  but 
with  it. 

The  story  of  the  Anglo-Chinese  College  at 
Singapore,  for  example,  reads  like  an  amazing 
romance.  A  little  more  than  thirty  years  ago 
William  F.  Oldham  was  sent  from  India  to 
start  a  Methodist  mission  in  the  Straits,  but,  as 
was  somewhat  characteristic  of  the  Methodists 
in  those  days,  no  funds  were  provided  wherewith 
to  start  said  mission.  Oldham  was  a  son  of  the 
Orient,  born  in  India,  educated  in  the  United 
States,  and  happily  combining  a  genius  for  good 
nature  with  a  genius  for  doing  and  saying  ex- 
actly the  right  thing  at  the  right  time.  He 
arrived  in  Singapore  without  a  cent. 

For  the  last  hundred  years  and  more  the 
Straits  of  Malacca  have  been  the  happy  hunting- 
[94] 


Wl 


THE  MISSIONARY  SCHOOLMASTER 


ground  for  the  Chinese.  That  strip  of  land  pro- 
jecting from  Burma  down  through  the  tropics 
to  the  equator  is  perhaps,  mile  for  mile,  the 
richest  area  in  the  world.  The  Chinese  were 
the  first  to  discover  the  fact.  From  Southern 
China  they  came  in  great  numbers,  and  the 
frugality  and  industry  which  were  the  prime 
necessities  for  a  bare  existence  in  the  crowded 
valleys  of  China  made  them  rich  in  Malaysia. 
One  man  who  came  to  the  Straits  sixty-five  years 
ago  as  a  coolie  died  last  year  reported  worth 
more  than  $20,000,000.  The  business  of  Singa- 
pore is  largely  in  the  hands  of  the  Chinese.  There 
are  no  less  than  40,000  Chinese  in  that  one  city 
who  were  born  there,  as  well  as  135,000  who 
have  migrated.  They  represent  the  largest  as 
well  as  the  most  progressive  block  of  that  very 
cosmopolitan  population.  The  young  Methodist 
missionary  soon  found  himseK  taken  to  the  heart 
of  the  Straits  Chinese. 

Not  long  after  his  arrival  he  was  invited  to 
lecture  before  the  Celestial  Reasoning  Associa- 
tion, an  educational  organization  of  Chinese 
merchants.  He  selected  astronomy  as  a  safe 
topic  for  the  lecture.  The  next  week  the  penni- 
less missionary  became  tutor  in  English  to  a 
prominent  Chinese  gentleman.  In  a  month  he 
had  a  class  of  thirty-six  boys,  most  of  them  rich 
men's  sons.  A  little  later  the  merchants  gave 
him  $6,200  with  which  to  start  a  school.  The 
Government,  always  willing  to  encourage  the 
Chinese  in  the  Straits,  in  marked  contrast  to 
[95] 


THE  DEMOCRATIC  MOVEMENT  IN  ASIA 

the  American  policy  in  the  Philippines,  also  con- 
tributed a  few  thousand  dollars  and  the  Method- 
ist Anglo-Chinese  School  was  launched.  In  ten 
years  this  school  began  to  enroll  a  thousand 
pupils  annually  and  now  there  are  more  than 
1,600.  The  most  extraordinary  part  of  this  story 
is  that  the  school,  now  a  college,  has  never  yet 
cost  a  missionary  a  cent  for  operating  expenses, 
not  even  for  the  salary  of  the  teachers.  At  the 
same  time  the  institution  has  always  been  dis- 
tinctly a  Christian  school  and  under  the  direct 
control  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church. 

The  fame  of  the  Anglo-Chinese  College  of 
Singapore  spread  throughout  the  region  from 
Penang  to  Java.  The  Chinese  immigrants,  who 
come  in  at  the  rate  of  half  a  million  each  year, 
leaving  the  graves  of  their  ancestors  behind  them 
in  Foochow,  Amoy,  and  Canton,  leave  also 
much  of  the  conservatism  and  immobility  of  their 
race.  In  the  new  land  they  are  eager  for  new 
ideas.  First  of  all  they  desire  education.  The 
result  has  been  that  the  Methodists  now  have 
no  less  than  eight  Anglo-Chinese  schools  scat- 
tered over  the  peninsula  and  the  islands,  in  which 
the  missionary  is  the  schoolmaster,  while  the 
entire  expenses  of  the  schools  are  borne  by  the 
patrons,  sometimes  with  the  aid  of  the  Govern- 
ment. The  missionaries  are,  of  course,  free  to 
engage  in  evangelistic  work  outside  of  school 
hours,  the  result  being  that  everywhere  the 
church  follows  the  schoolhouse.  Not  long  ago  a 
Singapore  merchant  came  to  New  York  and 
[96] 


I 


THE  MISSIONARY  SCHOOLMASTER 


offered  the  founder  of  this  system  of  schools, 
now  Bishop  Oldham,  some  hundreds  of  thousands 
of  dollars  if  only  he  would  return  to  Singapore 
and  give  his  personal  direction  to  the  enlarge- 
ment and  extension  of  the  Anglo-Chinese  Col- 
lege. 

These  educational  triumphs  in  the  mission 
field  have  been  accomplished  in  the  face  of  great 
handicaps.  Missionaries  have  usually  been  se- 
lected with  slight  reference  to  their  qualifications 
as  teachers.  The  primary  object  of  the  foreign 
missionary  has  always  been  to  make  converts  to 
Christianity  and  to  raise  up  a  self-propagating, 
self-supporting  church.  His  work  as  a  teacher 
was  first  undertaken  to  contribute  to  his  main 
purpose  and  even  in  later  years  the  work  of 
teaching  has  been  only  one  of  his  many  duties. 
Only  recently  a  missionary  remarked  to  me,  "I 
am  supposed  to  occupy  the  chair  of  political 
economy  in  a  college,  but  my  chair  has  proved 
to  be  a  bench  with  a  lot  of  stools  added."  Then 
he  went  on  to  enumerate  the  other  responsi- 
bilities which  he  has  had  to  assume.  Such  heavy 
burdens  and  division  of  interests  do  not  promote 
the  highest  efficiency.  The  understaffed  condi- 
tion of  every  mission  field,  due  to  the  inability 
of  mission  boards  to  find  suitable  recruits  or  to 
support  them  when  found,  leaves  one  amazed 
that  the  missionary  is  able  to  do  so  many  things, 
and  so  many  kinds  of  things,  and  yet  do  them 
as  well  as  he  does. 

It  is  not  generally  understood  how  the  changes 
[97] 


THE  DEMOCRATIC  MOVEMENT  IN  ASIA 

in  the  religious  thought  of  the  last  few  decades 
have  begun  to  modify  the  work  of  the  mission- 
ary. In  the  days  when  salvation  was  the  simple 
problem  of  securing  an  experience  of  conversion 
with  a  view  to  putting  the  convert  in  the  path 
which  leads  directly  to  the  shining  gates  of 
Heaven,  the  task  was  one  of  simple  evangelism. 
Now  that  the  Christian  doctrine  of  salvation  is 
being  reconsidered  and  extended  to  cover  con- 
ditions of  body  and  mind  as  well  as  of  soul,  the 
missionary  purpose  must  also  be  re-defined.  The 
new  missionary  marks  the  progress  of  his  con- 
verts not  merely  by  the  fact  that  they  have 
torn  out  the  idols,  but  also  by  the  fact  that  they 
have  changed  the  course  of  the  sewer  and  begun 
to  desire  to  learn  to  read.  It  is  now  generally 
conceded  that  although  a  man  may  be  a  Christian 
and  still  believe  that  the  world  is  flat,  he  will 
probably  be  a  better  and  more  effective  Chris- 
tian if  he  knows  that  it  is  round. 

Changes  of  thought  on  the  mission  field  come 
more  slowly  than  at  home.  The  missionary  has 
taken  himseK  out  of  their  main  currents  of 
thought  and  immersed  himseK  in  action  of  the 
most  strenuous  kind.  It  so  happens  that  there 
is  not  yet  entire  agreement  in  the  mission  field 
as  to  the  value  of  education  as  an  agency  of 
salvation.  Within  four  years  I  have  sat  in  a 
mission  meeting  and  heard  a  representative  of 
a  church  which  in  America  gathers  the  best- 
educated  people  of  the  community,  say,  "I  don't 
see  how  you  missionaries  find  so  much  time  to 
[98] 


PREM  DAS  (SERVAXT  OF  LOVE) 
WAS  RECENTLY  BEATEN  BY  THE 
liANDLOBDS  FOR  VENTURING  TO 
TEACH  THESE  BOYS  TO  READ  AND 
TO  FIGURE  ACCOUNTS.  HE  SPENT 
SEVERAL  WEEKS  IN  THE  HOSPITAL, 
BUT  AS  SOON  AS  ABLE  RETURNED 
TO  HIS  PRIMITIVE  SCHOOL  UNDER 
THE  PROTECTION  OF  THE  POLICE 
AND  OP  THE  MISSIONARY. 


,     «~         I.     «     •  <• 


; 


THE  MISSIONARY  SCHOOLMASTER 

teach  school.  I  am  out  here  to  save  souls  and 
I  don't  have  time  for  anything  else."  When  one 
knows  that  this  speaker  has  just  as  much  voice 
in  determining  the  educational  policy  of  that 
mission  as  the  most  highly  trained  speciahst 
from  an  American  teachers'  college,  one  sees  one 
of  the  great  weaknesses  of  mission  organization 
in  many  places.  However,  one  has  only  to  scan 
the  lists  of  new  missionaries  who  are  being  sent 
to  the  field  to  see  that  within  a  very  few  years 
practically  every  missionary  is  going  to  be  a 
highly  trained  specialist,  prepared  for  a  specific 
task.  The  mission  school  is,  therefore,  sure  to 
be  lifted  steadily  to  higher  standards  of  quahty 
and  work. 

Already  the  missions  are  beginning  to  lead  out 
with  radical  changes  of  educational  policy.  The 
missionary  carried  to  Asia  the  American  venera- 
tion of  the  college.  As  rapidly  as  possible  he 
gathered  up  what  pupils  he  could  from  the 
primary  and  secondary  schools,  to  put  them  into 
college.  This  method  was  necessary,  and  still  is, 
for  the  entire  educational  work  of  the  Orient, 
both  public  and  private,  is  now  all  but  marking 
time,  waiting  for  the  production  of  a  sufficient 
number  of  trained  native  teachers  to  carry  on 
the  present  work  and  extend  it.  For  this  pur- 
pose the  college  is  most  essential.  On  the  other 
hand,  the  college  now  finds  that  it  has  far  too 
few  feeders  in  the  form  of  primary  schools.  Most 
children  do  not  get  beyond  the  primary  school. 
The  recognition  of  this  fact,  in  Asia  as  well  as 
[99] 


THE  DEMOCRATIC  MOVEMENT  IN  ASIA 

in  America,  is  calling  for  a  greater  emphasis  on 
the  development  of  primary  schools. 

The  population  of  the  Orient  is  rural.  The 
people  live  by  tilling  the  soil,  employing  prim- 
itive methods  which  have  changed  little  in  forty 
centuries.  The  missionary  schoolmaster,  there- 
fore, faces  the  task  of  a  Hampton  and  a  Tus- 
kegee  rather  than  that  of  a  Harvard  and  a  Yale. 
It  is  often  the  case  at  present  that  the  mission- 
ary has  taken  his  converts  as  far  as  they  can  go 
until  their  economic  condition  has  been  improved. 
Neither  Christianity  nor  civilization  can  develop 
far  in  advance  of  the  ability  and  opportunity 
of  the  individual  to  earn  sufficient  money  to 
sustain  better  standards  of  living  or  more  effective 
forms  of  government.  Perhaps  the  most  notable 
illustrations  of  how  the  missions  are  branching 
out  along  these  lines  of  agricultural  and  voca- 
tional training  are  found  in  the  work  of  Sam 
Higginbottom  at  Allahabad,  India,  and  Joseph 
Baillie  at  Nanking,  China,  although  there  is 
hardly  a  mission  station  anywhere  today  which 
is  not  trying  to  make  its  education  more  practical. 

Higginbottom  is  preaching  the  gospel  of  deep 
plowing  and  silos.  When  he  finds  that  India 
produces  only  eighty  pounds  of  clean  cotton 
while  the  United  States  produces  two  hundred 
and  Egypt  four  hundred  pounds  to  the  acre,  he 
himself  goes  to  an  agricultural  school,  learns 
how  to  raise  cotton,  and  then  starts  his  boys  off 
with  experiments  in  soil  pulverization,  fertiliza- 
tion, and  seed  selection.  He  is  none  the  less  a 
[100] 


THE  MISSIONARY  SCHOOLMASl'ER 

missionary  because  he  mixes  iis'  Biblfe'^^ttt-dy 
with  lessons  on  the  growing  of  sugar  cane  and 
wheat.  Already  Gwalior  State  has  asked  the 
Presbyterian  mission  to  loan  Higginbottom  for 
part  time  as  government  director  of  agriculture. 
Indeed,  this  enthusiastic  young  American  has 
already  pioneered  the  way  for  the  Government, 
which  has  admittedly  failed  in  most  of  its  efforts 
to  teach  agriculture  to  the  Indians.  As  a  by- 
product of  his  work  the  high  caste  pupil  learns 
the  dignity  of  labor  and  rubs  the  edges  off  his 
caste  prejudices.  Not  long  ago  a  visitor  to 
Allahabad  found  four  sons  of  rajahs  hard  at 
work  filling  a  silo.  Hitherto  the  sight  of  an 
Indian  prince  working  with  his  hands  has  been 
as  rare  as  an  elephant-hunt  on  Broadway. 

Joseph  Baillie  of  Nanking  is  usually  referred 
to  as  "quite  a  character."  It  took  him  a  long 
time  to  find  his  place  in  the  missionary  work  of 
China,  but  at  last  he  discovered  it.  He  is  teach- 
ing the  Chinese  to  plant  trees.  Tree-planting 
will  reforest  the  bare  hills  and  prevent  floods. 
It  will  reclaim  millions  of  acres  of  land  which 
are  now  a  waste.  Baillie,  backed  by  mission, 
college,  gentry,  and  government,  has  so  firmly 
planted  his  idea  in  the  minds  of  the  Chinese 
that  tree-planting  has  come  to  be  almost  a  hobby. 
Provinces  have  taken  it  up,  and  cities — yes,  and 
villages.  A  national  Arbor  Day  has  been  estab- 
lished and  is  generally  observed.  Next  to  the 
suppression  of  opium-smoking  this  crusade  of 
tree-planting  is  about  the  most  vigorous  sign  of 
[101] 


;    THE  DEJ^CBATIC  MOVEMENT  IN  ASIA 

ifc  iiewJtfe  in  China.  If  space  permitted  I  might 
enumerate  many  other  missionaries  who  are 
breaking  away  from  conventional  educational 
theory  and  practice  to  enter  upon  new  paths 
which  promise  to  revolutionize  trades  and  even 
industries.  For  example,  a  missionary  down  at 
Hinghwa  recently  introduced  a  new  model  of 
hand-loom  which  greatly  improves  the  quality 
of  cloth  produced.  This  same  missionary  man 
showed  the  rice-growers  how  to  multiply  the 
value  of  their  fertilizer  G.ve  times,  by  substituting 
a  grinding  process  for  the  method  of  turning 
sea-shells  in  which  the  value  of  the  bone  is  largely 
lost. 

This  kind  of  practical  missionary  education  is 
capable  of  almost  infinite  extension.  Hitherto 
the  missions  have  held  back  from  industrial 
training  and  vocational  education  of  these  sorts, 
because  there  were  so  few  men  available  to  con- 
duct the  work  and  also  because  of  the  great  ex- 
pense involved.  However,  if  the  missionary  is  to 
retain  the  place  of  educational  leadership  which 
he  has  won  it  will  soon  be  necessary  for  him 
greatly  to  increase  this  kind  of  work.  Asia  is 
demanding  that  its  new  schools  be  made  very 
practical. 

The  American  administration  of  the  Philip- 
pines has  exercised  a  profound  influence  upon 
things  educational  throughout  the  entire  Orient. 
The  blase  colonial  administrator  was  inclined  to 
smile  when  Uncle  Sam,  in  his  exuberance  of  en- 
thusiasm  and   sentimentality,    began    to   export 

[  102  ]  j 


I 


THE  MISSIONARY  SCHOOLMASTER 


schoolteachers  by  the  shipload  to  the  Philippines. 
None  smile  now.  Notwithstanding  the  fact  that 
after  eighteen  years  of  effort  over  fifty-five  per 
cent  of  the  rather  scant  Filipino  population  over 
ten  years  of  age  is  still  illiterate,  and  half  of  the 
school  population  is  still  unprovided  with  schools, 
none  jeers  at  Uncle  Sam's  schools.  Instead,  other 
governments  are  sending  delegations  there  to 
study  them.  The  missionary  will  do  well  to 
know  them  carefully.  They  have  proved  prac- 
tical: they  have  demonstrated  that  the  Oriental 
is  worthy  of  careful  education,  but  better  still 
they  have  introduced  a  new  idea. 

The  great  deficiency  of  the  average  mission 
and  government  school  in  China  and  India,  has 
been  that  it  does  not  yet  think  in  terms  of  citizen- 
ship. The  mission  school  is  designed  primarily  to 
prepare  for  intelligent  church  membership;  the 
government  school  tends  chiefly  to  prepare  clerks 
for  government  offices.  This  is  especially  true  in 
India.  Because  of  the  tremendous  impetus  given 
by  the  American  policy  in  the  Philippines  to  the 
desire  for  self-government  throughout  the  Orient, 
accelerated  as  it  has  been  by  the  present  war, 
any  school  which  expects  to  win  or  keep  the 
confidence  of  the  people  will  have  to  consider 
this  rising  tide.  Some  missionaries  will  argue 
that  it  is  unnecessary  to  regard  this  aspect  of 
education,  inasmuch  as  a  good  Christian  will, 
of  course,  be  a  good  citizen.  But  such  an  answer 
will  not  satisfy  the  Indian  or  the  Chinese. 

The  missionary  schoolmaster  is  now  at  the 
[103] 


THE  DEMOCRATIC  MOVEMENT  IN  ASIA 

parting  of  the  ways,  so  far  as  his  leadership  is 
concerned.  Either  he  must  prepare  himself  to 
conduct  a  school  better  than  can  the  returned 
student  who  has  finished  his  course  in  pedagogy 
at  Harvard,  Yale,  Oxford,  or  Cambridge,  and  to 
offer  the  broadest  kind  of  training  for  citizenship 
in  the  new  governments  which  are,  or  which  are 
to  be,  or  he  will  most  certainly  lose  the  place 
which  he  has  won. 

Two  of  the  most  important  contributions  of 
the  mission  school  remain  to  be  mentioned. 

Last  spring  I  was  a  guest  at  a  Chinese  feast 
in  one  of  the  great  provincial  cities  of  China. 
Aside  from  the  amazing  dishes  set  before  the 
dozen  guests,  the  feast  was  interesting  because 
it  was  a  gathering  of  the  kind  of  men  who  are 
actually  governing  China.  With  the  exception  of 
myself  and  two  others,  they  were  politicians, 
representing  ranks  corresponding  approximately 
to  that  of  city  aldermen. 

The  men  all  came  in  sedan  chairs,  partly  be- 
cause etiquette  requires  it,  but  also  because 
many  of  them  are  physically  incapable  of  walking 
a  mile  in  any  reasonable  time.  It  is  not  too  well 
understood  that  while  the  lower  class  Chinese 
are  tough  and  strong  as  oxen,  the  upper  classes 
are  soft  and  effeminate.  Most  of  the  men  carried 
fans  and  handled  them  in  a  most  ladylike  manner. 
Many  of  them  were  drunk  when  they  arrived, 
and  drunker  still  when  the  feast  was  over.  They 
ate  and  drank  for  two  hours  and  a  half  in  the 
middle  of  the  day  and  then  hurried  off  to  attend 
[104] 


THE  MISSIONARY  SCHOOLMASTER 

a  second  feast,  which  was  due  to  begin  at  seven 
in  the  evening.  Nearly  every  man  there  was 
overfed  and  dyspeptic.  The  conversation  was 
foul  and  indecent.  That  week  the  republic  was 
sliding  swiftly  toward  revolution  and  chaos. 
Meanwhile  these  officials  gorged  themselves,  fid- 
dling while  Rome  burned.  This  vision  of  China 
will  always  remain  for  me  one  of  the  most  un- 
pleasant I  have  to  remember. 

A  few  weeks  later  I  attended  an  athletic  meet 
on  the  grounds  of  Peking  University,  a  mission- 
ary institution.  The  teams  from  Tsing  Hua  Col- 
lege, where  the  indemnity  students  are  prepared, 
and  from  the  Government  Normal  College  were 
competing  with  the  home  athletes.  I  saw  boys 
go  into  a  gruelling  two-mile  race  and  stick  to  it 
until  they  stumbled  from  exhaustion  and  were 
carried  from  the  field.  Four  boys  tied  for  the 
pole-vault  at  ten  feet  six,  and  fought  it  out  for 
half  an  hour.  All  over  the  field  smaller  boys, 
hero-worshipers,  carried  blankets  for  their  favor- 
ites, moved  hurdles  on  and  off  the  track,  and 
did  many  kinds  of  menial  labor  which  not  many 
years  ago  would  have  been  considered  suited 
only  to  coolies.  When  a  boy  lost  a  race,  instead 
of  losing  face,  he  went  and  shook  hands  with  the 
one  who  had  defeated  him. 

China  is  being  governed  today  by  these  over- 
fed, polygamous,  dissipated  politicians  who  live 
from  feast  to  feast,  but  tomorrow — ?  Do  you 
think  that  these  160,000  boys  and  girls  now  under 
instruction  in  mission  schools,  learning  modem 
[105] 


THE  DEMOCRATIC  MOVEMENT  IN  ASIA 

science,  clean  living,  and  good  sportsmanship,  will 
always  be  content  with  things  as  they  are? 

Some  of  those  boys  at  Peking  University  may 
never  amount  to  much.  Some  of  them  may 
turn  out  to  be  crooks.  There  are  already  mission- 
school  graduates  of  that  character  in  every 
country  in  the  Orient.  But,  for  that  matter, 
turn  to  the  alumni  catalogue  of  any  American 
university  and  you  will  find  a  percentage  of  the 
same  sort.  Most  of  the  mission  students  do 
turn  out  well,  in  spite  of  the  fact  that  the  dead 
weight  of  centuries  of  accumulated  corruption 
and  ignorance  falls  upon  their  backs  the  moment 
they  leave  the  college  gate.  Remember  that 
China  is  a  land  of  six  or  seven  per  cent  literacy. 
In  America  a  college  education  is  no  longer  a 
unique  preparation  for  life;  in  China  it  makes 
a  boy  a  prince.  In  the  next  generation  these 
boys,  and  the  girls  too,  are  going  to  have  a  place. 
Incidentally,  one  may  add,  there  is  little  hope 
for  China  until  that  day  comes. 

Perhaps  the  greatest  contribution  of  the  mis- 
sion school  to  Asia,  is  the  attention  which  it  has 
given  to  the  education  of  girls.  In  the  care  for 
boys  the  missions  have,  as  I  have  already  men- 
tioned, been  sailing  with  the  tide  for  several 
decades.  Not  so,  as  regards  the  girls.  It  has 
been  frequently  said  that  Asia,  from  one  end 
to  the  other,  is  one  long  crime  against  woman- 
hood. The  crime  begins  in  infancy  and  childhood. 
It  is  the  missionary  teacher  who  is  bringing  the 
Orient  a  new  valuation  of  womanhood.  Chris- 
[106] 


ALTHOUGH  JAPAN  HAS  PRACTI- 
CALLY ALL  OF  HER  SCHOOL  POPU- 
LATION BETWEEN  THE  AGES  OF 
SIX  AND  TWELVE  IN  SCHOOL,  SHE 
STILL  FEELS  THE  NEED  OF  SUPPLE- 
MENTARY AGENCIES  FOR  THE  TRAIN- 
ING OP  THE  YOUTH.  THIS  IS  A 
CLASS  IN  THE  HOUSE  OF  THE 
FRIENDLY  NEIGHBOR,  A  SOCIAL  SET- 
TLEMENT MAINTAINED  BY  MADAME 
OMORI,  IN  TOKYO. 


THE  MISSIONARY  SCHOOLMASTER 

tianity  in  Asia  is  marked  by  the  fact  that  it  be- 
lieves in  educating  girls. 

When  I  asked  Professor  Nitobe  of  the  Imperial 
University  in  Tokyo  to  name  the  contributions 
which,  in  his  estimation,  Christianity  has  made  to 
Japan,  he  placed  first  the  education  of  women. 
"The  education  of  boys  would  probably  have 
been  taken  care  of  by  the  Government,"  he  said 
to  me,  "but  the  girls  would  have  fared  badly 
without  the  example  and  inspiration  of  the  mis- 
sions." Then  he  told  me  of  an  incident  which, 
while  it  illustrates  only  one  phase  of  the  subject, 
will  serve  to  mark  the  point. 

A  little  while  ago  a  journalist  came  to  Pro- 
fessor Nitobe  and  said,  "Give  me  the  names  of 
some  of  the  best  women  teachers  who  have 
been  doing  exceptionally  good  work  but  have 
not  yet  received  public  recognition.  I  wish  to 
visit  their  schools  and  write  about  them  in  my 
magazine." 

"What  did  you  find.?"  asked  Professor  Nitobe 
a  few  weeks  later,  when  the  man  returned. 

"I  notice  this  difference  between  the  older  and 
the  Christian  teachers,"  he  replied.  "While  they 
are  all  excellent  women,  I  find  that  those  teachers 
who  were  trained  under  the  old  Confucian  ethics 
are  cold,  and  without  enthusiasm.  I  find  that 
the  Christian  teachers  are  more  enthusiastic, 
more  tender." 

"That  is  the  great  contribution  of  Christianity 
to  Japan,"   remarked  Professor  Nitobe  to   me. 
**It  has  made  our  women  more  tender.    Our  old 
[107] 


THE  DEMOCRATIC  MOVEMENT  IN  ASIA 

religious  and  ethical  system  stifled  the  emotions, 
dammed  them  up,  gave  them  no  right  channels 
of  expression." 

Perhaps,  when  all  the  accounts  are  cast  up, 
it  may  be  found  that  the  work  which  is  now  go- 
ing on  quietly  in  each  mission  station,  always 
with  great  respect  for  the  prejudices  of  the 
people,  for  the  education  and  the  emancipation 
of  those  who  are  to  be  the  mothers  of  the  next 
generation,  may  prove  the  greatest  gift  of  the 
West  to  the  East. 

One  should  never  neglect  this  factor  when 
considering  the  very  complex  Oriental  problem 
which  is  to  confront  the  world  as  soon  as  the 
War  is  over:  there  are  about  900,000  pupils  under 
instruction  in  the  mission  schools  of  Asia. 


[108] 


THE  MISSIONARY  DOCTOR 


CHAPTER  VI 
THE  MISSIONARY  DOCTOR 

Before  a  few  doses  of  quinine  or  a  small  vial 
of  iodine  superstition  and  prejudice  give  way. 

The  missionary  doctor  may  be  accepted  not 
so  much  for  his  professional  standing  as  for  his 
powers  as  an  apparent  magician,  but  whatever 
the  afflicted  man,  his  family,  and  his  neighbors 
may  think  of  him,  they  are  glad  to  accept  his 
services.  The  village  may  be  slow  to  extend 
its  gratitude  and  affection  to  the  colonial  govern- 
ment's civil  surgeon.  The  village  priest  may 
make  trouble  for  the  Christian  preacher  and  the 
village  sage  may  hold  his  ground  before  the 
missionary  schoolteacher,  but  the  astrologer  or 
the  witch-doctor  cannot  keep  the  loyalty  of  the 
man  with  a  stomach-ache  when  there  is  a  modern 
doctor  within  call.  The  science  of  modern 
medicine  is  now  well  established  in  Japan,  al- 
though not  everywhere  accepted,  and  is  rapidly 
becoming  indigenous.  Elsewhere  in  Asia  and  in 
Africa  the  secrets  of  health  are  still  almost  ex- 
clusively within  the  keeping  of  the  foreigner,  either 
the  colonial  official  or  the  missionary.  Their 
only  rival,  and  he  has  already  become  a  formidable 
one,  is  the  patent  medicine  agent. 

The  missionary  may  make  the  not  very  proud 
claim  that  he   was   the  first   to   introduce   the 

[111] 


THE  DEMOCRATIC  MOVEMENT  IN  ASIA 

patent  painkiller  and  the  elixir.  He  is  to  be 
acquitted  of  conscious  fault,  for  he  took  the 
painkiller  out  with  him  as  much  for  himself  and 
for  his  own  family  as  for  his  prospective  con- 
verts. The  patent  medicine  manufacturer,  quick 
to  see  the  opportunity  for  the  development  of 
new  markets,  provided  the  new  missionary  with 
cases  of  medicine  as  his  personal  contribution  to 
the  cause,  and  then  sent  agents  to  put  up  bill- 
boards from  Tokyo  to  Bombay  announcing  the 
virtues  of  this  marvelous  Western  remedy.  The 
missionary  has  learned  wisdom.  He  continues 
to  order  cod  liver  oil  by  the  barrel,  but  he  no 
longer  distributes  patent  nostrums.  But  patent 
medicine  agents  and  the  billboards  are  still 
there  and  have  apparently  come  to  stay.  There 
is  hardly  a  bulletin  board  in  all  Asia  which  does 
not  carry  the  advertisement  of  some  patent 
medicine,  many  of  them  offering  certain  cures 
for  venereal  disease,  and  the  new  native  news- 
papers, which  are  increasing  like  a  conflagration, 
would  quickly  fail  but  for  the  advertisements  of 
cigarettes  and  of  these  cures.  Dr.  Edward 
Hume  of  the  Yale  Mission  in  Changsha,  China, 
told  me  that  he  had  even  seen  a  medicine  which 
was  advertised  to  cure  the  bound  feet  which  are 
now  going  out  of  fashion  among  the  Chinese 
women. 

The  following  advertisement,  clipped  from  a 

newspaper  in  the  Federated  Malay  States,  aside 

from  being  a  not  unfair  specimen  of  what  one 

may   read   in   almost   any   newspaper   in   Asia, 

[112] 


THE  EAST  HAS  TAKEN  ENTHUSIAS- 
TICALLY TO  BILLBOARDS  AND  ALSO 
TO  WESTERN  PATENT  MEDICINES. 
SUCH  ADVERTISEMENTS  AS  THESE 
ARE  APPEARING  EVERYWHERE,  FROM 
TOKYO  TO  BOMBAY. 


THE  MISSIONARY  DOCTOR 

illustrates  the  fact  that  human  nature,  high  and 
low,  does  not  vary  greatly  the  world  over,  re- 
gardless of  the  tint  of  the  skin. 

Her  Highness  INCHI  BESAR,  Sultana  the 
mother  of  H.  H.  Sir  Ibrahim,  Sultan  of  Johore, 
who  has  been  suffering  from  Lumbago  and  Back- 
ache for  five  or  six  months  has  taken  the 

JONGKEENA 
mixture  with  good  results  as  the  following  letter 
certifies : 

Johore,  Sunny  Side 
Dear  Y.  Tan, 

In  receipt  of  yours  of  20th  instant  about  the 
medicine  "Jongkeena"  I  am  taking  it  every  day. 
I  have  finished  three  bottles.  It  is  doing  me 
very  good.  I  cannot  say  I  am  alright  yet.  But 
I  feel  much  better.  The  pain  on  my  back  is 
better  only  my  feet  is  still  weak  and  little  pain 
and  I  might,  however,  I  hope  to  get  well  soon. 

Thank  God  your  kindness  has  relieve  me  of 
some  pain  and  I  thank  you.  The  Doctors  say 
it  is  Lumbago  old  peoples'  sickness  and  fever 
cold.    You  can  make  good  my  letter. 

Thanking  you  again  for  your  kindness. 
Yours  truly, 

(sd)  INCHI  BESAR. 

The  world  production  of  food,  raw  materials, 
and  manufactured  products  is  not  more  than 
half  what  it  would  be  if  the  health  of  the  back- 
ward races,  which  comprise  roughly  two-thirds 
of  the  population,  could  be  lifted  to  the  level 
of  the  health  of  tJie  other  third. 
[113] 


THE  DEMOCRATIC  MOVEMENT  IN  ASIA 

Statistics  are  lacking  either  to  prove  or  to 
disprove  this  assertion,  but  such  facts  as  one  has 
to  judge  by  make  it  appear  probable  that  it 
may  be  even  an  under-statement.  Among  the 
backward  races  the  death  rates  are  incredibly 
high  and  the  majority  of  those  who  do  survive 
are  seriously  handicapped  in  labor  by  partial 
disability  and  impaired  constitutions  resulting 
from  preventable  disease. 

The  rate  of  infant  mortality  in  New  York 
City  is  less  than  ten  in  a  hundred.  Among  the 
backward  races  this  rate  is  seldom  below  forty 
in  a  hundred  and  there  are  areas  where  only  one 
infant  in  five  lives  to  be  a  year  old.  The  govern- 
ment tabulators  estimated  that  India  at  the 
time  of  the  last  census  would  have  shown  an 
increase  of  population  six  and  one  half  million 
in  excess  of  the  actual  increases  for  ten  years, 
had  it  not  been  for  the  ravages  of  plague.  The 
records  from  1891  to  1901  showed  that  the  dura- 
tion of  life  for  Indians  is  constantly  growing 
shorter.  The  annual  toll  from  tuberculosis  among 
the  billion  people  of  Asia  and  Africa  is  doubtless 
much  greater  than  the  total  loss  of  life  in  the 
European  War.  Premature  death  anywhere  in 
the  world  may  be  translated  directly  into  terms 
of  economic  loss  in  civihzation.  The  child  in 
South  America  or  in  Java  has  as  definite  an 
actual  economic  value  as  a  potential  producer 
as  the  child  in  America. 

But  premature  death,  amazing  as  is  its  extent, 
does  not  impoverish  civilization  so  much  as  does 
[114] 


THE  MISSIONARY  DOCTOR 

the  permanent  or  partial  disability  of  the  living. 
India,  for  example,  has  twice  as  many  bhnd 
people  in  proportion  to  the  population  as  the 
United  States,  and  in  Russia  blindness  is  even 
more  common  than  in  India.  The  blind  popula- 
tion of  the  backward  races  is  probably  in  excess 
of  two  million  people.  Tuberculosis,  malaria, 
hookworm,  and  frequently  venereal  disease  are 
the  bane  of  tropical  countries.  These,  aside 
from  high  death  rates,  bring,  as  every  one  knows, 
greatly  lowered  vitality  for  those  who  siu'vive. 
It  is  estimated  that  no  less  than  ninety  per  cent 
of  the  population  of  Java  suffer  from  one  or 
more  of  these  preventable  diseases. 

There  is  a  popular  impression  that  disease  and 
early  death  are  not  unmixed  disasters  for  Asia 
and  Africa.  Many  people  regard  them  as  prov- 
idential arrangements  to  check  or  cure  the  evils 
of  overpopulation.  Why  thwart  the  designs  of 
Providence  .f^  While  it  is  generally  understood 
that  South  America  is  underpopulated,  it  is 
assumed  that  Asia  and  Africa  already  have 
greater  populations  than  the  resources  of  the 
countries  are  able  to  sustain  in  prosperity.  Such 
assumptions  are  not  borne  out  by  the  facts. 
England  is  twice  as  thickly  populated  as  India; 
Holland  has  almost  five  times  as  many  people 
to  the  acre  as  China.  There  are  vast  tracts  of 
land  in  India  and  China,  as  well  as  in  Africa 
and  Russia,  which  are  still  awaiting  settlers. 
Indeed,  China  has  more  free  public  land  for 
homesteads  than  has  the  United  States.  The 
[115] 


THE  DEMOCRATIC  MOVEMENT  IN  ASIA 

backward  races  are  impoverished,  not  because 
the  resources  of  their  lands  are  meager,  but  be- 
cause these  peoples  do  not  profitably  utilize  the 
immense  riches  which  they  have.  The  back- 
ward races  are  weak  because  they  do  not  produce 
enough;  underproduction,  not  overpopulation,  is 
the  cause  of  their  poverty. 

True,  famine  is  an  annual  menace  in  Asia  and 
Africa,  but  this  is  due  not  to  overpopulation  but 
to  congestion  of  population  in  the  superabundant 
areas,  such  as  rich  river  valleys,  where  flood  or 
sudden  drought  works  sweeping  havoc.  As  India 
extends  her  railway  systems  and  her  irrigation 
projects,  famine  disappears,  for  crops  increase, 
while  roads  and  railways  make  it  possible  to 
transfer  food  from  place  to  place  as  the  need 
arises.  Owing  to  the  present  bad  distribution  of 
the  population  and  the  frightful  congestion  in 
restricted  areas,  a  very  large  proportion  of  the 
people  suffer  from  malnutrition,  with  a  consequent 
lowering  of  vitality,  increase  of  liability  to  dis- 
ease, and  restriction  of  production.  The  remedy 
for  such  conditions  is  not  an  epidemic,  but  the 
development  of  transportation,  diversification  of 
labor,  and  better  utilization  of  the  natural  re- 
sources. Many  factors  enter  into  the  increasing 
of  production,  but  first  of  all  is  the  improvement 
of  the  health  of  the  producer. 

In  view  of  the  present  appalling  destruction 

both  of  men  and  of  materials  in  the  European 

War,  the  present  low  productive  capacities  of  the 

backward  races  become  of  especial  interest.    The 

[116] 


THE  MISSIONARY  DOCTOR 

world  must  replenish  its  supplies  from  some- 
where. A  new  era  of  manufacturing  is  just  ahead. 
There  will  be  an  increasing  demand  for  raw 
materials.  In  Europe  more  and  more  people 
will  be  withdrawn  from  agriculture  and  the  pro- 
duction of  raw  materials  and  set  at  machines 
to  produce  manufactured  goods.  New  railway 
systems  already  planned  across  Africa,  Asia,  and 
South  America,  together  with  the  unmeasured 
tons  of  shipping  now  being  produced,  will  make 
available  to  civilization  to  a  degree  as  yet  un- 
realized the  resources  now  in  the  keeping  of 
the  backward  races.  Every  continent  will  be 
called  upon  to  produce  more,  to  make  a  better 
use  of  its  natural  wealth.  We  shall  then  be  face 
to  face  with  the  fact  that  this  two-thirds  of  the 
world,  which  has  thus  far  shared  little  in  the 
benefits  of  advancing  material  civilization,  is  ill 
prepared  to  enter  heartily  into  the  international 
partnership  of  production.  These  races,  not- 
withstanding the  richness  of  their  possessions, 
are  impoverished,  producing  less  than  is  required 
for  their  own  needs.  They  have,  taking  all  their 
needs  together,  no  surplus  whatever  to  share 
with  the  Western  world  or  to  use  as  a  basis  of 
exchange  for  manufactured  products. 

The  Western  nations  may  build  railways,  open 
mines,  introduce  tractor  plows  and  the  modern 
science  of  agriculture,  promote  improved  school 
systems  and  vocational  training  without  limit, 
and  yet  these  efforts  to  develop  the  backward 
races,  not  only  for  their  own  good  but  also  for 
[117] 


THE  DEMOCRATIC  MOVEMENT  IN  ASIA 

the  welfare  of  the  world,  will  dismally  fail  of 
full  eflSciency  unless  there  go  with  these  efforts 
proportionate  constructive  measures  for  improv- 
ing the  public  health. 

One  may  urge  the  loss  to  civilization  due  to 
the  high  death  rates  and  ill  health  of  these  peoples, 
without  minimizing  the  humanitarian  appeal  of 
the  incredible  physical  suffering  which  this  large 
part  of  humanity  is  now  silently  bearing  because 
of  its  ignorance  of  the  laws  of  living.  Together 
with  the  suffering  goes  a  brutal  callousness  to 
human  misery  which  bars  the  way  to  effective 
civilization.  Democracy,  or  Christianity,  can 
make  little  progress  where  human  life  is  held 
cheap  and  the  afflicted  human  body  is  in  con- 
tempt. 

In  the  face  of  the  present  deplorable  state  of 
public  health  among  the  less  favored  races  of 
the  world,  modern  medical  and  surgical  practice 
have  an  absolutely  free  field.  A  brief  survey  of 
the  present  measures  for  the  promotion  of  public 
health  in  India,  Malaysia,  the  Philippines,  and 
China  will  show  how  very  feasible  is  a  Christian 
crusade  for  health  in  the  backward  races.  The 
responsibilities  for  this  movement  are  divided 
between  the  colonial  health  officer  and  the  mis- 
sionary. The  latter,  including  the  missionary 
nurse  as  well  as  the  doctor,  must  play  a  unique 
role.  A  glance  at  what  has  already  been  accom- 
plished suggests  the  wonderful  possibilities  of  a 
usefulness  which  will  be  international  as  well 
as  racial  in  its  scope. 

[118] 


THE  MISSIONARY  DOCTOR 

The  British  Government  keeps  a  corps  of 
over  750  medical  men,  aside  from  many  sanitary 
commissioners,  in  India.  Originally  the  Medical 
Service  was  devised  for  the  care  of  the  British 
officers  and  their  families  and  the  native  troops. 
The  duties  of  these  men  have  been  gradually 
widened  to  include  the  general  supervision  of 
sanitation,  the  protection  of  water  supplies,  and 
the  prevention  of  epidemic  disease.  Many  a 
wanderer  in  India  has  cause  to  remember  grate- 
fully the  good  offices  of  the  "civil  surgeon," 
especially  if  he  first  has  been  led  through  the 
bazaar  in  search  of  a  few  liver  pills. 

Although  the  British  Government  has  made 
vast  contributions  to  the  cause  of  public  health 
through  its  medical  officers,  through  its  labora- 
tories for  the  study  of  tropical  diseases,  and  by 
its  offices  freely  given  to  everyone  in  times  of 
epidemic,  it  must  be  recognized  that  its  policy 
has  been  more  defensive  than  offensive.  The 
truth  is  that  no  colonial  government  has  yet 
entered  aggressively  into  the  field  for  the  pro- 
motion of  public  health.  Probably  more  has 
been  done  in  the  Philippines  along  these  lines 
than  in  any  other  colony. 

The  work  of  the  Government  in  the  care  of 
health  is  supplemented  by  that  of  the  missionary 
physician.  In  none  of  the  British  colonies  does 
the  missionary  hospital  receive  government  aid, 
such  as  is  given  to  the  mission  school.  The 
missionary,  on  the  other  hand,  is  so  preoccupied 
with  the  pressing  evangelistic  and  educational 
[119] 


THE  DEMOCRATIC  MOVEMENT  IN  ASIA 

needs  that  although  mission  work  is  supposed  to 
rest  on  a  tripod  of  church,  school,  and  hospital, 
the  hospital  leg  is  often  very  much  the  shortest. 
In  no  missionary  countries  has  medical  work 
received  the  emphasis  which  its  importance  to 
civilization  demands. 

The  missionary  doctor  was  not  originally  in- 
troduced among  the  backward  races  to  care  for 
matters  of  public  health.  He  was  merely  a  spe- 
ciahzed  missionary,  usually  ordained,  and  pre- 
pared to  expound  a  text  as  easily  as  to  open  an 
abdomen.  Probably  it  would  not  be  fair  to  liken 
his  medical  skill  to  the  worm  which  covers  the 
hook  and  yet  it  cannot  be  denied  that  his  services 
were  often  offered  as  a  bait  to  the  curious.  Per- 
haps one  might  better  say  that  he  was  the  Baptist 
who  went  ahead  to  prepare  the  way  by  disarming 
prejudice,  making  friends,  and  demonstrating  the 
disinterested  motives  of  the  missionary.  He  was 
the  classic  proof  to  the  people  that  the  mission- 
ary seeks  not  yours  but  you.  Furthermore,  the 
introduction  of  the  medical  missionary  repre- 
sented an  advanced  step  in  efficiency  in  the 
mission.  He  displaced  the  patent  medicine  and 
replaced  the  unprofessional  ministrations  of  the 
missionary,  who  hitherto  had  always  had  to 
carry  on  his  rounds  a  few  drugs  as  well  as  tracts 
and  a  Bible. 

More  recently  the  scope  of  the  work  of  the 

medical    missionary    has    greatly    widened.      He 

still   retains   his   place   in   the  mission   hospital, 

and  while  the  patients  wait  their  turn  in  the 

[120] 


MORE  IMPORTANT  THAN  THE  HOS- 
PITAL ITSELF  IS  THE  IDEAL  WHICH 
18  BEING  INTRODUCED  INTO  THE 
EASTERN  WORLD — THE  INTELLIGENT 
CONSERVATION  OF  HUMAN  LIFE. 
THE  LOWERING  OF  INFANT  MORTAL- 
ITY MARKS  THE  GROWTH  OF  THE 
EASTERN  NATIONS  TOWARD  THE 
IDEALS  OF  SOCIAL  RESPONSIBILITY 
WHICH  UNDERLIE  SELF-GOVERN- 
MENT. 


THE  MISSIONARY  DOCTOR 

dispensary  the  preacher  and  the  Bible  woman 
preach  to  them.  But  as  the  doctor  operates  he 
is  surrounded  by  a  circle  of  students  who  will 
some  day  be  either  nurses  or  doctors  on  their 
own  account.  The  aim  of  the  mission  is  to  make 
the  practice  of  modern  medicine  and  surgery 
indigenous.  In  the  hospital  and  in  the  medical 
school,  which  is  often  very  primitive,  as  well  as 
by  itinerating  trips  through  the  villages,  the 
doctor  multiplies  his  influence  far  beyond  the 
circle  of  his  personal  contacts,  but  in  his  place 
as  professional  adviser  in  matters  of  public 
'wealth  he  is  now  in  a  way  to  make  his  largest 
contributions  to  the  new  age. 

The  Dutch  Government  in  Malaysia  has  re- 
cently embarked  upon  an  interesting  experiment, 
in  which  it  has  made  the  proposition  to  an  Amer- 
ican missionary  board  that  the  Government  will 
finance  the  erection  of  nine  hospitals  and  bear 
three-fourths  of  the  cost  of  the  salaries  for  phy- 
sician, nurse,  and  several  native  nurses  if  only 
the  mission  board  will  supply  the  doctor  and 
nurse.  Up  until  the  present  time  Holland  has 
given  very  little  attention  to  the  health  of  her 
subject  races. 

Manila  fares  rather  better  than  most  Oriental 
cities  in  the  matter  of  health  conditions,  as  one 
can  readily  see  from  the  fact  that  the  city  an- 
nually reports  an  excess  of  births  over  deaths 
of  several  in  a  thousand,  whereas  Singapore, 
Madras,  and  Bombay  report  an  actual  excess  of 
deaths  over  births  of  from  fifteen  to  twenty  in 
[121] 


THE  DEMOCRATIC  MOVEMENT  IN  ASIA 

a  thousand.  Nevertheless  the  United  States 
Government  found  conditions  far  from  ideal — so 
bad  in  fact  that  they  yielded  only  stubbornly 
to  improvement.  In  the  year  1902,  during  an 
epidemic,  about  three-fifths  of  all  children  under 
one  year  of  age  died.  At  that  time  the  general 
rate  was  about  three  and  one  half  times  as  high 
as  in  New  York  City.  The  normal  death  rate 
in  the  Philippines  at  the  time  of  the  American 
occupation  was,  omitting  cholera  years,  about 
eighty-two  per  cent  higher  than  in  the  United 
States.  The  average  duration  of  life  for  the 
Filipino  was  about  two -thirds  the  average  in 
the  United  States. 

The  Government  launched  upon  what  is  prob- 
ably the  most  extensive  campaign  for  public 
health  ever  inaugurated  in  Asia.  Beginning 
with  Manila  and  reaching  out  as  far  into  the 
smaller  cities  and  barrios  as  was  possible,  measures 
both  for  the  prevention  of  disease  and  for  the 
promotion  of  health  were  introduced.  Pure 
water  supplies  were  developed  to  replace  shallow 
wells  and  contaminated  springs;  laws  dealing 
with  pure  food,  pure  drugs,  and  pure  milk  were 
introduced;  sewer  systems  were  constructed;  a 
system  of  quarantine  was  established,  and  the 
subject  of  health  was  made  a  part  of  the  study 
in  the  public  schools.  Meanwhile  a  magnificent 
government  hospital  was  built  in  Manila,  with 
a  training  school  for  nurses,  and  the  University 
of  the  Philippines  began  the  training  of  doctors 
on  an  extensive  scale.  As  a  direct  result  of  these 
[132] 


THE  MISSIONARY  DOCTOR 

measures  of  sanitation,  education,  and  better 
care  of  the  sick,  the  death  rate  in  Manila  in  a 
dozen  years  was  reduced  from  more  than  forty- 
five  in  a  thousand  to  less  than  twenty-five. 
Manila  now  has  a  death  rate  not  greatly  in 
excess  of  many  American  cities  in  the  northern 
tier  of  states. 

The  Government  in  the  Philippines  has  con- 
ducted its  health  campaign  so  energetically  and 
on  such  a  large  scale  that  there  has  been  less 
need  for  the  missionary  doctor  there  than  in 
most  countries  where  missionaries  are  at  work, 
although  there  is  still  a  place  for  the  mission 
hospital  in  the  Philippines.  The  remarkable  suc- 
cess of  the  work  indicates  something  of  the  possi- 
bilities for  the  conservation  of  life  in  Asia  when 
the  work  is  undertaken  with  skill  and  energy. 

China  is  now  undergoing  an  awakening  of 
interest  in  pubKc  health  in  which  the  missionary 
is  the  leader.  In  the  new  republic  the  mission- 
ary has  the  unique  place  of  being  responsible  for 
most  of  the  good  impulses  and  few  of  the  bad 
ones.  Nowhere  is  he  rendering  a  more  effective 
service  than  in  this  matter  of  the  prevention  of 
disease.  Although  the  Government  does  not  sub- 
sidize the  mission  hospital  except  in  the  single 
instance  of  the  Yale  Mission  at  Changsha,  where 
the  subsidy  is  given  in  an  indirect  way  such  as 
the  Chinese  love  to  travel,  there  is  very  close 
cooperation  everywhere  between  the  Government 
and  the  missionary  doctor.  Sometimes  the  co- 
operation   is    with    more    zeal    than   knowledge. 


THE  DEMOCRATIC  MOVEMENT  IN  ASIA 

The  older  generation  which  is  now  passing  off 
the  stage  is  still  proud  and  yields  its  established 
precedence  grudgingly. 

Fenchow,  North  China,  recently  had  an  epi- 
demic of  diphtheria.  There  were  available  only 
two  western-trained  medical  men,  Dr.  Percy  T. 
Granger,  the  American  Board  physician,  and  his 
Chinese  assistant.  Dr.  Ma.  They  telegraphed 
the  government  Board  of  Health  in  Peking, 
requesting  that  the  local  health  officials  be  asked 
to  cooperate  in  checking  the  epidemic.  Peking 
responded  through  the  proper  channels,  order- 
ing the  local  authorities  to  give  every  possible 
cooperation.  The  magistrate  disposed  of  the 
matter  at  once  by  having  posted  all  over  the 
city  an  official  proclamation,  prepared  in  con- 
sultation with  the  Chinese  doctors,  which  offered 
the  following  prescription: 

"Use  Women's  Toenails,  Bamboo  Pith,  and  Bed- 
bugs, Grind  to  a  Powder  and  Sprinkle  in  the 
Throat." 

If  the  traveler  has  the  patience  and  the  grit 
he  may  find  his  way  to  the  city  of  Yenping, 
China.  To  get  there  from  Shanghai  he  will 
have  to  brave  the  typhoons  of  the  China  Sea, 
visit  the  hotel-less  city  of  Foochow,  take  a  sampan 
at  midnight,  trans-ship  to  a  rickety  and  infested 
launch  at  three  a.  m.,  endure  its  discomforts  for 
twelve  hours,  and  then  spend  several  days  in 
another  sampan  which  often  has  to  be  pulled 


THE  MISSIONARY  DOCTOR 

through  the  rapids  of  the  Mintu  River  by  coolies. 
One  will  find  a  city  perched  on  a  cliff  at  the  con- 
fluence of  two  rivers  which  reach  back  into  the 
mountains  where  few  foreigners,  except  a  half 
dozen  missionaries,  ever  go.  The  province  of 
Fukien  is  like  an  island  encircled  by  a  forbidding 
coast  line  on  one  side  and  by  brigand-haunted 
mountains  in  the  rear.  One  would  expect  it  to 
be  a  most  favorable  spot  in  which  to  study  China 
as  it  is  when  untouched  by  any  foreign  influence. 
On  the  contrary,  Yenping  is  in  the  van  of  Chinese 
progress. 

An  anti-foreign  outbreak  swept  over  this  part 
of  China  about  twenty  years  ago,  and  several 
missionaries  were  murdered,  but  the  missions 
persisted  in  extending  themselves  into  the  coun- 
try and  eventually  built  a  station  at  Yenping, 
erecting  a  hospital  as  well  as  schools  and  churches. 
The  hospital  is  a  ramshackle  affair,  which  will 
probably  some  day  fall  in  a  crash  unless  it  is 
rebuilt.  The  operating  room  is  crude  and  the 
doctor  uses  flour  bags  for  towels.  However,  the 
institution  has,  in  an  area  of  3,600  square  miles, 
no  rivals  with  which  to  suffer  in  comparison. 
It  is  the  sole  modern  agency  ministering  to  the 
health  of  700,000  people  in  the  two  river  valleys, 
and  the  people  respect  it  so  much  that  though 
revolutions  come  and  go  through  the  gates  of 
the  city,  the  hospital  is  always  protected. 

A  few  years  ago  the  taotai  (mayor)  came  to 
Dr.  James  E.  Skinner,  the  physician  in  charge, 
and  asked  his  advice,  concerning  not  his  own 
[126] 


THE  DEMOCRATIC  MOVEMENT  IN  ASIA 

personal  health  or  that  of  his  family,  but  the 
public  health  of  the  city.  What  could  be  done 
to  improve  the  health  conditions?  Dr.  Skinner 
pointed  out  how  the  filthy  condition  of  the 
streets  facilitated  the  spread  of  disease  and  ex- 
plained how  every  American  city  has  a  street- 
cleaning  brigade.  Immediately  a  street-cleaning 
department  was  organized  and  set  in  operation 
at  Yenping.  Then  the  doctor  took  the  magis- 
trate out  and  showed  him  where  the  city  was 
drawing  its  water  from  contaminated  sources. 
He  explained  how  western  cities  protect  their 
water,  even  bringing  it  long  distances  from  the 
mountains  to  insure  pure  and  ample  supplies. 
Yenping  immediately  started  the  development  of 
a  new  water  supply  under  the  direction  of  the 
medical  missionary.  At  length  the  doctor  ap- 
proached the  most  difficult  problem.  "How 
about  all  these  unburied  coffins .f^"  he  inquired. 

It  is  the  custom  in  China  to  delay  burial  until 
the  astrologer  can  name  an  auspicious  day  and 
place.  The  result  of  this  custom  of  delayed  burial 
is  that  China  is  cluttered  up  with  an  enormous 
number  of  unburied  coffins.  One  finds  them  in 
backyards,  by  the  roadsides,  and  in  every  field. 
The  doctor  explained  how  dangerous  to  public 
health  were  those  unburied  coffins  in  Yenping. 
The  magistrate  had  a  census  taken  and  discovered 
16,000  of  them,  the  population  of  the  city  being 
only  about  25,000. 

The  disposal  of  this  obstacle  to  modern  progress 
was  a  delicate  question.    The  official  recognized 
[126] 


I 


THE  MISSIONARY  DOCTOR 


the  necessity  for  the  removal  of  the  coffins,  but 
he  might  easily  proceed  in  such  a  way  as  to  bring 
the  entire  city  down  about  his  ears.  But  the 
Chinese  are  clever  in  such  situations,  perhaps 
the  cleverest  people  on  earth.  It  would  not  do 
to  attack  the  validity  of  the  astrologer's  judg- 
ment nor  to  blast  away  the  solid  rock  of  Chinese 
traditions  and  sentiment,  but  it  was  entirely 
within  his  province  to  levy  taxes.  Indeed  the 
Chinese  magistrate  exists  by  virtue  of  that  pre- 
rogative. Forthwith  he  issued  a  proclamation 
fixing  a  tax  of  fifty  cents  on  all  unburied  coffins. 
The  Chinese  may  be  superstitious,  but  they  are 
even  more  thrifty.  There  is  a  vein  of  the  Anglo- 
Saxon  in  them.  They  do  not  like  to  permit  reli- 
gious sentiment  to  interfere  with  business.  There- 
fore Yenping  cast  astrology  aside  for  a  while 
and  devoted  itseK  to  funerals  at  the  rate  of  a 
thousand  a  week.  Today  this  little,  isolated 
Chinese  city  in  the  wilds  of  Fukien  is  on  the 
road  to  health. 

About  the  same  time  that  Yenping  was  being 
invaded  by  a  mission  hospital,  one  of  the  gentry 
from  Nanchang,  the  provincial  capital  of  Kiangsi, 
paid  a  visit  to  Kiukiang  on  the  Yangtze  River. 
At  that  time  this  entire  province  was  closed  to 
foreigners  and  the  proud  city  of  Nanchang  was 
quite  outside  the  currents  of  modern  progress. 
But  the  wife  of  this  gentleman  was  ill  and  he 
had  heard  that  there  were  two  Chinese  girls  in 
Kiukiang  who  had  recently  returned  from  the 
study  of  Western  medicine  as  it  is  practiced  in 
[127] 


THE  DEMOCRATIC  MOVEMENT  IN  ASIA 

Ann  Arbor.  These  girls  had  been  adopted  as 
babies  by  a  missionary.  Miss  Gertrude  Howe, 
educated  as  her  own  children,  and  were  now  at 
work  in  the  Methodist  Hospital  for  Women  in 
Kiukiang.  At  the  conclusion  of  his  tour  of  in- 
spection, this  member  of  the  gentry  implored 
the  mission  to  send  one  of  the  young  lady  physi- 
cians to  Nanchang  to  cure  his  wife.  Dr.  Ida 
Kahn  accepted  his  invitation,  became  the  guest 
of  the  Chinese  family,  found  the  lady  suffering 
from  hysteria,  and  cured  her,  as  she  says,  by 
mental  suggestion.  Nanchang,  however,  re- 
mained unmoved,  complacent,  reactionary. 

Dr.  Kahn  decided  to  remain  in  Nanchang 
and  start  a  hospital.  The  first  months  were 
tempestuous.  One  day  she  was  stoned  and 
mobbed,  because  she  thoughtlessly  ventured  to 
ride  through  the  streets  of  the  city  in  an  un- 
covered sedan  chair.  Nanchang  folk  would  not 
tolerate  such  lapses  from  feminine  propriety. 
But  at  length  the  gentry  came  and  offered  her 
several  thousand  piculs  of  grain,  which  she  sold 
and  with  the  money  purchased  land  for  a  dis- 
pensary. They  wanted  her  to  have  the  property 
deeded  in  her  name,  but  she  dismissed  their 
arguments  with  the  concise  reply  that  such  a 
course  would  be  foolish  in  view  of  the  fact  that 
she  could  not  live  forever.  Then  they  tempted 
her  with  promises  of  generous  aid  if  only  she 
would  cut  loose  from  the  mission  and  from 
Christianity.  Dr.  Kahn  refused  the  offer  and 
continued  her  work. 

[128] 


THE  PRODUCTIVE  CAPACITY  OF 
THE  WORLD  WOULD  DOUBTLESS  BE 
DOUBLED  IP  THE  HEALTH  OF  THE 
BACKWARD  RACES  COULD  BE  LIFTED 
TO  THE  LEVEL  OF  THE  HEALTH  OF 
THE  OTHER  THIRD  OF  THE  WORLD'S 
POPULATION.  TWO-THIRDS  OF  THE 
WORLD  SUFFERS  FROM  SUCH  MALNU- 
TRITION AND  PHYSICAL  WEAKNESS 
AS  CREATE  LARGE  IJABILITY  TO 
TUBERCULOSIS  AND   PLAGUES. 


THE  MISSIONARY  DOCTOR 

In  fifteen  years,  during  which  time  the  doctor 
had  been  receiving  a  salary  of  perhaps  three 
hundred  dollars  each  year.  Dr.  Kahn  built  up 
a  magnificent  hospital,  the  only  one  for  women 
in  an  entire  province,  and  trained  a  great  many 
nurses  and  assistants.  Two  years  ago  the  Tientsin 
Women's  Hospital,  a  municipal  institution  in 
which  the  Government  and  the  gentry  share 
expenses,  invited  Dr.  Kahn  to  become  its  super- 
intendent. When  I  visited  Nanchang  last  year 
I  found  a  municipal  board  of  health,  a  uniformed 
street-cleaning  department  equipped  with  buckets 
of  unslacked  lime  for  sprinkling  the  streets,  and 
a  mission  doctor  giving  his  services  to  the  city 
in  the  work  of  free  vaccination.  One  may  gather 
anywhere  in  China  similar  illustrations  of  how 
eagerly  the  Chinese  respond  to  the  introduction 
of  modern  methods  of  curing  and  of  preventing 
disease. 

The  Chinese  make  excellent  physicians  and 
especially  skilful  surgeons  because  of  their  dex- 
terity in  the  use  of  the  hands.  Miss  Lin  Hie-Ding 
came  to  the  United  States  eight  years  ago  deter- 
mined to  become  a  doctor.  She  was  so  successful 
that  she  was  eventually  made  chief  interne  in  a 
Chicago  hospital.  There  she  perfected  a  new 
method  of  inducing  twilight  sleep,  which  she 
used  one  hundred  and  ninety  times  with  entire 
success.  One  day  a  little  Chinese  boy  was  brought 
to  her  with  a  bad  case  of  tonsilitis.  Dr.  Lin 
recommended  an  operation  to  remove  adenoids 
and  explained  to  the  scandalized  relatives  how  it 
[129] 


THE  DEMOCRATIC  MOVEMENT  IN  ASIA 

could  be  accomplished.  When  they  hesitated  the 
doctor  opened  her  own  mouth  and  showed  them 
how  she  had  once  submitted  to  a  similar  opera- 
tion. The  family  did  not  like  the  idea  of  having 
their  boy's  throat  cut,  but  at  length  agreed. 
Very  joyfully  the  boy  was  received  back  into 
the  bosom  of  his  family  the  very  afternoon  after 
the  operation  had  been  performed.  One  day  a 
few  months  later  Dr.  Lin  found  her  reception 
room  fairly  crowded  with  the  boy's  family,  rela- 
tives, and  neighbors  from  Chinatown.  What 
did  they  all  want.^^ 

They  reported  that  while  the  boy  had  for- 
merly been  a  very  disagreeable  member  of  the 
family,  quarrelsome  and  irritable,  and  stupid 
in  school,  his  disposition  was  now  completely 
changed  and  he  was  doing  remarkably  well  in 
school.  The  family  had  talked  it  over  and  the 
entire  neighborhood  was  now  agreed  that  if 
that  Foochow  girl  at  the  hospital  could  effect 
such  marvelous  changes  in  disposition  and  men- 
tal powers  for  the  boy,  they  ought  every  one 
to  come  and  apply  for  treatment.  Would  Dr. 
Lin  please  cut  their  throats  in  a  similar  way? 
When  Dr.  Lin  returned  to  establish  a  hospital 
for  women  in  her  own  land,  she  took  with  her 
many  hundreds  of  dollars'  worth  of  drugs  and 
instruments,  the  gifts  of  her  Chinese  friends  in 
Chicago,  to  help  launch  the  new  venture. 

During  a  recent  tour  of  China  which  carried 
me  far  off  the  beaten  paths,  I  did  not  enter  a 
single  city  which  did  not  already  have  a  street- 
[130] 


THE  MISSIONARY  DOCTOR 

cleaning  department  and  a  board  of  health,  or  at 
least  a  health  association.  Dr.  W.  W.  Peter, 
lecturer  on  public  health  for  the  Young  Men's 
Christian  Association,  is  largely  responsible  for 
this  amazing  situation.  For  several  years  Dr. 
Peter  has  given  himseK  exclusively  to  the  stim- 
ulation of  Chinese  interest  in  public  health. 
His  methods  are  picturesque  and  peculiarly 
adapted  to  a  land  of  literati  and  illiterates.  Dr. 
Peter  arranges  it  so  that  he  visits  the  city  at  the 
invitation  of  the  gentry  and  of  the  official  classes. 
His  coming  is  attended  with  much  ceremony. 
The  schools  are  closed  to  permit  the  pupils  to 
attend.  The  largest  temple  or  hall  in  the  city 
is  rented.  Dr.  Peter,  under  the  patronage  of 
the  Minister  of  the  Interior,  even  invaded  the 
Forbidden  City  at  Peking  and  gave  forty-six 
lectures.  Admission  is  by  ticket  only.  An 
American  press  agent  for  a  circus  could  teach 
Dr.  Peter  nothing  about  the  uses  of  publicity. 

The  lectures  themselves  are  unique.  They  are 
visual,  rather  than  verbal,  presenting  the  facts 
as  to  China's  sad  plight  in  the  matter  of  sickness 
by  means  of  pantomimes  and  mechanical  toys 
which  offer  to  the  audience  numerous  oppor- 
tunities for  laughter.  A  laugh  is  half  the  battle 
in  China.  Dr.  Peter  shows  his  audiences  how 
the  people  die  of  tuberculosis:  a  toy  man  walks 
out  of  a  toy  house  and  falls  into  a  toy  coffin 
every  thirty-seven  seconds.  Blocks  jump  out  of 
a  table  to  show  the  relative  density  of  population 
in  the  various  countries  of  the  world.  A  coolie 
[131] 


THE  DEMOCRATIC  MOVEMENT  IN  ASIA 

appears  bowed  down  to  the  ground  with  bundles, 
each  bearing  the  name  of  one  of  the  common 
Chinese  ailments.  He  cannot  run  a  race  with 
Japan,  he  cannot  build  railways,  schools,  or  ships 
because  he  has  to  carry  this  heavy  load.  "This 
represents  sick  China,"  says  Dr.  Peter.  One 
by  one  the  burdens  are  lifted  and  carried  be- 
hind the  curtain.  At  length  Dr.  Peter  says, 
"Now  see  how  fine  China  can  be  when  she  puts 
all  these  burdens  under  her  feet."  The  curtains 
in  the  rear  are  parted  and  a  young  Chinese 
athlete  appears  standing  on  the  packs  arranged 
in  the  form  of  a  pyramid.  The  athlete  waves 
the  Christian  flag  and  the  audience  applauds. 

Dr.  Peter  has  been  holding  these  series  of 
lectures  throughout  China  and  has  already  ad- 
dressed more  than  65,000  people.  Peking  is 
now  building  a  magnificent  government  hospital, 
which  is  to  serve  as  a  model  for  the  development 
of  similar  institutions  throughout  the  republic. 
It  stands  next  to  the  Temple  of  the  Imperial 
Ancestors,  which  Yuan  Shih  Kai  had  refurnished 
with  the  expectation  that  some  day  his  tablet 
would  be  added  to  its  walls.  Now  Dr.  Wu 
Lien-tu  of  the  government  hospital  openly  boasts 
that  some  day  the  temple  will  become  an  annex 
to  the  new  hospital.  Such  a  disposal  of  the 
sacred  building  is  quite  possible.  The  Chinese 
are  a  very  practical  people  and  they  have  very 
little  sentiment  about  temples. 

About  three  years  ago  the  China  Medical 
Board  was  created,  under  the  auspices  of  the 
[132] 


THE  MISSIONARY  DOCTOR 

Rockefeller  Foundation,  "to  promote  the  gradual 
and  orderly  development  of  a  comprehensive  and 
efficient  system  of  medicine  in  China."  While 
not  a  denominational  enterprise,  the  work  initi- 
ated and  contemplated  makes  it  the  most  mag- 
nificent piece  of  broadly  missionary  work  yet 
undertaken  in  the  history  of  the  world.  The 
general  method  for  the  work  is  to  aid  missionary 
institutions,  undertake  direct  medical  education, 
and  supply  fellowships  and  scholarships  as  may 
be  required. 

The  organization  of  the  Peking  Union  Medical 
College,  under  the  China  Medical  Board,  has 
already  been  completed  and  Dr.  Franklin  C. 
McLain,  formerly  of  the  Rockefeller  Institution 
of  Medical  Research,  is  physician  in  chief.  The 
Peking  Union  Medical  College  is  really  the 
medical  college  of  the  united  missions  of  Peking, 
taken  over  and  reorganized.  In  the  same  way 
the  Red  Cross  Hospital  and  the  Harvard  Med- 
ical School  in  Shanghai  are  becoming  the  founda- 
tion of  a  second  medical  college,  similar  to  that 
at  Peking.  Eventually  this  system  of  medical 
schools  will  probably  be  widely  extended. 

The  teaching  is  to  be  done  in  English.  In 
addition  to  these  institutions  directly  under  the 
care  of  the  China  Medical  Board,  liberal  subsidies 
have  been  made  to  missionary  institutions  like 
the  Yale  Hospital  at  Changsha  and  the  Shantung 
Christian  University  at  Tsinan-fu,  and  arrange- 
ments have  been  made  with  some  others  to  assist 
in  carrying  forward  more  efficiently  the  instruc- 
[133] 


THE  DEMOCRATIC  MOVEMENT  IN  ASIA 

tion  of  medical  students  through  the  medium  of 
the  Chinese  language.  The  total  appropriation 
for  this  work  has  equalled  about  $5,000,000. 

The  China  Medical  Board  is  setting  far  higher 
standards  of  medical  education  than  the  missions 
have  ever  been  able,  with  their  limited  support, 
to  attain.  The  missions  are  thereby  placed  under 
the  necessity  of  greatly  increasing  their  efficiency. 
Furthermore,  the  China  Medical  Board  is  very 
exacting  in  its  requirements  as  to  quality  of 
work  done,  before  it  offers  any  subsidy  to  the 
missions.  The  entrance  of  the  China  Medical 
Board  has  revealed  in  a  bold  way  the  present 
inadequacy  and  inefficiency  of  existing  hospitals 
and  medical  schools  and  is  likely  to  be  a  great 
stimulus  to  the  missions  in  improving  the  quahty 
of  their  service. 

The  most  recent  mission  statistics  indicate 
that  there  are  now  over  700  mission  hospitals 
scattered  over  the  world  and  over  1,200  dis- 
pensaries. Over  1,000  missionary  doctors,  a 
third  of  whom  are  women,  are  ministering  to 
the  needs  of  countless  patients.  They  are  as- 
sisted by  more  than  500  foreign  trained  nurses, 
230  native  physicians,  and  about  2,000  native 
assistants,  both  men  and  women.  Great  as  is 
the  work  already  established,  the  fact  that  only 
one  missionary  in  every  twenty-five  is  a  doctor 
shows  very  clearly  that  the  magnitude  of  the 
task  of  conservation  of  human  life  in  backward 
races  has  not  yet  fully  gripped  the  imagination 
of  the  Christian  Chiu'ch. 

[134] 


THE  MISSIONARY  DOCTOR 

In  reality  the  missionary  doctor  is  an  equal 
copartner  with  the  missionary  schoolmaster  and 
the  missionary  preacher.  The  work  undertaken 
by  the  three  is  a  unity.  The  omission  of  any  one 
phase  of  the  work  means  that  to  that  degree  the 
full  message  of  Christianity  is  undelivered.  It 
is  not  suflBcient  merely  to  preach  the  Gospel  to 
peoples  who  are  ignorant.  The  Gospel  must  be 
applied  in  visual  demonstration  before  the  stranger 
can  comprehend  the  full  dimensions  of  its  mean- 
ing. The  missionary  doctor  is  the  incorporation 
of  one  very  essential  element  in  Christianity,  the 
ministry  of  intelligent  mercy.  He  exemplifies 
the  humanitarian  ideal  which  has  been  the 
saving  salt  in  Western  civilization.  A  race  of 
people  who  lack  an  appreciation  of  that  ideal 
as  it  is  applied  to  the  infant,  the  aged,  the  de- 
fective, and  the  afflicted  can  make  little  progress 
along  any  intellectual  or  spiritual  line.  The 
new  industrialism  of  the  West,  which  is  now 
invading  the  backward  nations  with  motor  power 
and  labor-saving  machinery,  creates  an  addi- 
tional urgency  for  the  introduction  of  the  humani- 
tarian ideal.  Western  civilization,  as  typified  by 
blast  furnaces  and  cotton  mills,  without  the 
Christian  valuation  of  human  life,  would  mul- 
tiply rather  than  retrieve  the  present  miseries 
of  these  races. 

There  are  indications  that  the  era  following 
the  War  will  be  marked  by  the  greatest  mission- 
ary propaganda  among  the  backward  races 
which  the  world  will  ever  have  known.  It  is  to 
1 136  ] 


THE  DEMOCRATIC  MOVEMENT  IN  ASIA 

be  hoped  that  the  new  program  will  be  marked 
by  no  less  missionary  zeal  than  has  characterized 
the  work  in  the  past,  for  it  is  abundantly  demon- 
strated that  a  man  or  woman  must  have  the 
fire  of  an  apostle  or  his  enthusiasm  will  run 
cold  after  a  few  years  in  such  depressing  sur- 
roundings. On  the  other  hand,  it  is  certain  that 
the  work  of  the  missionary  will  take  on  a  broad- 
ened purpose  and  a  truer  perspective.  The  mis- 
sionary has  already  introduced  the  humanitarian 
ideal.  Building  on  that  foundation,  he  has  be- 
fore him  the  opportunity  to  render  not  merely 
a  humanitarian  but  also  an  international  service 
in  setting  standards  for  the  conservation  of  hu- 
man Hfe.  Meanwhile  he  is  sowing  for  an  im- 
mense harvest  of  good  will  toward  the  white 
race,  which  may  yet  become  a  highly  valued 
negotiable  commodity  in  the  marts  of  the  world. 


[136] 


THE  EMANCIPATION  OF  WOMEN 


CHAPTER  VII 
THE  EMANCIPATION  OF  WOMEN 

A  mass  meeting  was  called  in  Yokohama  in 
the  interests  of  the  Yomig  Women's  Christian 
Association.  The  chairman  proved  an  imfor- 
tunate  selection,  his  opening  remarks  being  de- 
cidedly off  key.  He  took  the  attitude  that  it  is 
the  sole  duty  of  Japanese  women  to  remain  in 
their  homes  and  be  obedient  to  their  husbands 
and  fathers  as  their  mothers  were.  No  one  who 
was  there  will  ever  forget  how  Miss  Michi  Kawaii, 
recently  returned  from  college  in  the  United 
States,  stepped  out  to  answer  him.  For  thirty- 
five  minutes  she  gave  the  chairman  a  very  cour- 
teous and  equally  indignant  response. 

"You  say  that  we  Japanese  women  are  cute 
and  sweet,"  she  exclaimed.  "So  are  cats  and 
dogs  for  that  matter.  But  we  notice  that  when 
American  men  come  over  here  it  is  your  servants 
and  geishas  whom  you  bring  out  to  entertain 
them.  These  men  do  not  see  any  decent  Japanese 
ladies.  Then  they  go  home  and  tell  what  kind 
of  women  you  have  in  Japan.  You  ought  to  be 
ashamed  of  yourselves."  And  from  all  accounts, 
the  chairman  was,  for  the  audience  fairly  rattled 
the  windows  with  applause. 

There  is  no  denying  that  a  spirit  of  rebellion 
is  moving  among  Ja-panese  women. 
[139] 


THE  DEMOCRATIC  MOVEMENT  IN  ASIA 

Madam  Hiroaka  of  Osaka,  a  member  of  the 
wealthy  Mitsui  family,  is  easily  one  of  the  half- 
dozen  leading  women  of  the  Orient.  She  is 
reported  to  be  the  richest  woman  in  Japan,  but 
is  more  famed  for  the  fact  that  after  her  husband's 
death  many  years  ago  she  gave  herself  to  the 
personal  management  of  her  large  business  and 
property  interests.  She  has  been  a  bank  di- 
rector and  one  of  the  organizers  of  an  insurance 
company.  She  has  coal  mines  in  Japan  and 
also  in  Korea.  Some  years  ago  when  the  great 
Mitsui  Department  Store  in  Tokyo  was  going 
on  the  rocks  she  was  the  one  selected  to  pull 
the  concern  off.  With  her  marvelous  executive 
ability  and  her  woman's  sense,  she  overhauled, 
reorganized,  and  put  it  on  a  paying  basis.  Now 
she  has  turned  over  her  business  affairs  to  her 
son-in-law  and  is  devoting  herself  to  social  re- 
form and  to  the  spreading  of  Christianity.  Madam 
Hiroaka  is  by  temperament  a  reformer,  even  a 
radical. 

One  walks  straight  into  the  Hiroaka  home 
without  having  to  remove  the  shoes  and  is  ushered 
directly  into  a  European  drawing-room  furnished 
in  brown  and  yellow  plush.  Madam  Hiroaka 
enters  and  greets  one  with  directness.  She  wears 
European  clothing.  We  do  not  sit  on  the  floor. 
This  lady  is  not  to  be  unnecessarily  impeded  by 
any  obstacles  of  dress  or  of  national  custom. 
Indeed  it  is  rumored  that  she  would  be  more 
popular  among  Japanese  women  if  only  she  would 
be  a  little  more  compromising  in  her  adoption 
[140] 


THE  EMANCIPATION  OF  WOMEN 

of  Western  ideas.  Madam  Hiroaka  is  not  of  the 
compromising  sort. 

"No,"  she  replied,  emphatically,  "there  is  no 
danger  in  this  woman  movement.  Only  a  few 
women  are  advancing  too  fast  and  they  are  not 
really  advancing.  They  are  going  back  to  the 
animal  stage,  free  love,  and  all  that  sort  of  non- 
sense." 

The  week  I  called  upon  her  all  Japan  was 
agog  with  the  scandal  of  an  attempted  murder 
committed  by  a  university  girl  on  her  male 
companion,  a  freelance  journalist  of  Tokyo. 
"Of  course  such  women  do  damage,  but  the 
average  Japanese  does  not  go  to  extremes  in 
anything."  Then  Madam  Hiroaka  went  on  to 
describe  how  she  had  become  interested  in  various 
reform  movements  for  women. 

"And  how  did  you  happen  to  become  a  Chris- 
tian?" 

"I  wanted  women  to  be  good  and  wanted 
to  help  them  to  improve  their  lot,"  she  replied 
tersely.  "I  found  that  I  could  not  accomplish 
what  I  desired  without  religion.  That  con- 
clusion sent  me  to  study  religion  from  the  woman's 
point  of  view.  I  found  that  there  is  no  hope 
for  women  in  any  of  the  religions  of  the  Orient. 
They  teach  that  from  the  cradle  to  the  grave 
women  are  inferior  to  men.  They  regard  women 
as  evil.  The  Confucian  system  of  ethics,  for 
example,  teaches  that  fools  and  women  cannot 
be  educated.  A  woman  cannot  be  a  'heavenly 
creature.'  It  teaches  that  it  is  better  to  see  a 
[141] 


THE  DEMOCRATIC  MOVEMENT  IN  ASIA 

snake  than  a  woman,  for  the  latter  arouses 
passion.  Japanese  women  have  been  so  long 
oppressed  by  this  kind  of  teaching  that  they 
no  longer  stop  to  ask  why.  They  are  afraid, 
like  slaves. 

"Then  I  began  to  read  the  Bible.  I  did  not 
like  some  parts  of  it  any  better  than  I  liked  the 
reUgions  of  the  East.  I  did  not  see  why  any 
woman  should  call  her  husband,  *Lord  and 
Master.'  Saint  Paul  made  me  very  angry.  He 
was  an  old  bachelor;  any  one  can  see  that.  He 
didn't  know  much  about  women.  But  Peter? 
He  was  fine.  He  had  a  wife,  he  understood 
women.  One  can  see  that  from  his  epistles. 
When  I  read  the  gospels  I  found  that  Jesus  made 
no  distinction  between  the  sexes.  I  liked  that. 
We  are  all,  women  as  well  as  men,  children  of 
God.  I  came  to  the  conclusion  that  the  only 
hope  for  the  women  of  the  Orient  to  attain  their 
true  position  is  through  Christianity." 

For  the  last  three  years  Madam  Hiroaka, 
accompanied  by  her  valet,  has  been  going  up 
and  down  the  Empire,  preaching  Christianity, 
with  the  zeal  of  a  crusader.  She  is  a  most  effective 
campaigner,  not  merely  because  of  her  novel 
approach  to  the  subject,  but  because  of  the 
innate  force  and  mastery  of  her  personality. 

The  late  William  Elroy  Curtis  was  fond  of 
saying,  after  his  return  from  a  journalistic  tour 
through  Turkey,  that  the  two  progressive  forces 
then  at  work  for  the  opening  up  of  that  Empire 
were  Christian  missions  and  French  novels  in 
[142] 


THE  EMANCIPATION  OF  WOMEN 

the  harems.  Likewise  it  may  be  said  that  there 
are  more  forces  than  Christianity  at  work  for 
the  emancipation  of  Oriental  women,  but  in  list- 
ing those  influences  one  cannot  forget  that  Chris- 
tianity is  first.  Professor  Nitobe,  who  has  just 
accepted  the  presidency  of  the  new  Union 
Christian  College  for  girls  in  Tokyo,  explained 
to  me  the  relation  of  the  woman  movement  and 
Christianity  in  Japan  in  this  way: 

"Hitherto  in  the  East  personality  has  received 
very  little  emphasis.  We  have  thought  in  terms 
of  the  group.  Probably  most  men  would  admit 
that  there  is  such  a  thing  as  personaKty,  but 
they  would  also  assert  that  it  is  entirely  mas- 
cuKne.  Women,  they  would  say,  have  none. 
Their  place  in  our  economy  has  been  entirely 
derivative,  never  independent.  They  have  been 
merely  members  of  the  domestic  circle,  a  daughter, 
a  wife,  a  mother,  a  widow.  Christianity  cuts 
directly  across  this  idea,  laying  stress  upon  indi- 
vidual responsibility  and  freedom.  Christianity 
has,  therefore,  given  us  a  new  valuation  of 
women." 

One  has  only  to  go  to  Manila  to  see  the  truth 
of  this  statement.  In  fact,  the  status  of  the 
Filipino  woman,  although  this  is  not  generally 
recognized,  is  one  of  the  greatest  apologetics  for 
Christianity  in  the  Orient.  One  often  hears 
people  say  that  the  missionary  ought  to  stay  at 
home,  that  Christianity  is  not  for  the  Orient. 
They  forget  that  Christianity  is  itseK  an  Oriental 
religion;  they  forget  also  that  it  has  been  in  the 
[143] 


THE  DEMOCRATIC  MOVEMENT  IN  ASIA 

Orient  for  centuries.  Francis  Xavier  carried  it 
out  there  long  before  the  Mayflower  put  out 
from  Plymouth.  After  many  vicissitudes  Chris- 
tianity took  root  in  the  Philippines  and  for 
centuries  Manila,  in  spite  of  the  unprogressive 
Spanish  influence,  has  been  a  Christian  capital 
in  Asia. 

The  Filipino  woman,  today,  is  so  far  in  advance 
of  her  other  Oriental  sisters  in  freedom,  social 
position,  and  independence,  that  she  is  in  a  class 
by  herseK.  There  is  some  seclusion,  but  it  is 
that  of  the  convent,  not  that  of  the  purdah 
which  other  Oriental  women  know.  The  Filipino 
woman  holds  the  family  purse,  but  she  does 
more  than  that:  she  is  the  business  agent  of 
the  family.  She  keeps  the  shop,  holds  the  prop- 
erty, and  carries  to  a  very  large  degree  the  business 
responsibiHty  of  the  Islands.  Nowhere  else  in  the 
Orient  will  one  find  a  woman  lawyer  practicing 
at  the  bar  and  writing  suffrage  articles  for  the 
daily  papers.  One  cannot  account  for  the  Filipino 
woman  on  the  ground  of  the  racial  superiority 
of  the  Malay.  Ordinarily  the  Malay  is  the 
weakest  blood  in  the  Orient,  the  least  progressive. 
The  entrance  of  the  United  States  into  the 
Islands  brought  increased  liberty  and  freedom, 
but  the  only  way  to  explain  the  unique  place 
which  the  Filipino  woman  occupies  in  the  East 
is  to  recognize  that  for  centuries  before  the 
American  occupation  the  people  were  being 
taught  a  Christian  valuation  of  womanhood. 

At  the  risk  of  making  an  odious  comparison 
[144] 


THIS  LITTLE  GIRL  WAS  SOLD  BY 
HER  MOTHER  INTO  SLAVERY.  AFTER 
THE  INITIAL  PAYMENT  HAD  BEEN 
MADE  THE  FATHER  DISCOVERED  THE 
FATE  IN  PROSPECT  FOR  THE  CHILD, 
REPAID  THE  MONEY,  AND  OBTAINED 
POSSESSION  OP  HIS  DAUGHTER, 
WHOM  HE  PLACED  IN  A  MISSION 
SCHOOL. 


THE  EMANCIPATION  OF  WOMEN 

I  should  say  that  the  status  of  Oriental  women 
is  to  be  graded  in  the  following  order:  Filipino, 
Japanese,  Chinese,  Malay,  and  Indian.  At  the 
same  time  one  must  remember  that  the  word 
Indian  is  too  loose  a  term  to  apply  to  the  women 
of  India.  The  Parsee  woman,  for  example,  al- 
though she  represents  an  infinitesimal  fraction  of 
the  Indian  sisterhood,  has  long  held  a  position 
quite  equal  to  that  of  the  Filipino,  and  possibly 
even  superior  to  it. 

One  must  speak  with  caution  of  a  feminine 
rebellion  outside  of  the  Philippines  and  Japan. 
Yet  we  can  notice  how  in  China  women  are 
beginning  to  come  into  their  own.  Although 
the  indemnity  funds  were  first  applied  exclusively 
to  boys,  three  years  ago  a  group  of  girls  were 
sent  to  the  United  States  and  the  authorities 
are  so  satisfied  with  the  experiment  that  other 
similar  groups  will  follow.  It  is  interesting  to 
note,  by  the  way,  that  practically  every  indemnity 
girl  already  sent  is  a  Christian  and  many  of 
them  are  daughters  of  Chinese  Christian  preach- 
ers. Aside,  however,  from  the  few  Chinese 
women  who  have  been  born  and  reared  in  the 
port  cities,  one  will  have  to  travel  far  in  China 
to  find  emancipated  Chinese  women,  except  as 
that  new  liberty  has  come  to  them  through  the 
missions.  But  one  will  find  plenty  of  high-spirited 
feminists  among  the  returned  girl  students  and 
in  the  mission  schools.  Never  have  I  heard  a 
more  brilliant  speech  from  a  woman  than  one 
made  by  Mrs.  Mei,  a  graduate  of  Barnard  College, 
[145] 


THE  DEMOCRATIC  MOVEMENT  IN  ASIA 

at  the  returned  students'  banquet  in  Shanghai 
last  year.  Her  remarks  were  addressed  largely 
to  her  brother  returned  students,  who  so  quickly 
forget  the  high  ideals  of  women's  place  in  so- 
ciety which  they  have  learned  in  America.  The 
speech  was  brilliant,  and  withering. 

But  China  adjusts  herseK  slowly  to  new  ideals 
of  womanhood.  I  made  it  a  point,  while  travel- 
ing about  China,  whenever  I  interviewed  a  high 
oflScial,  such  as  a  provincial  governor  or  a  taotai, 
to  compliment  him  on  the  progress  that  the. 
Government  is  making  in  its  program  of  educa- 
tion for  women.  Not  once  did  I  meet  with  an 
enthusiastic  response.  I  know  of  one  city  where 
a  governor  paid  an  official  visit  to  inspect  a 
government  girls'  school  and  the  next  day  sent 
chairs  and  invitations  to  some  of  the  more  comely 
girls  to  bring  them  to  his  yamen  for  no  very 
lovely  purpose. 

Some  of  the  greatest  tragedies  associated  with 
the  spread  of  Christianity  and  western  ideals  in 
China  are  due  to  the  fact  that  the  Chinese  women 
move,  or  are  allowed  to  move,  so  much  more 
slowly  than  the  men.  A  brilliant  young  Chinese 
student  from  a  distinguished  family  comes  to 
the  United  States  to  finish  his  education.  Ac- 
cording to  Chinese  custom  he  is  betrothed,  long 
before  he  has  passed  through  the  Chinese  schools, 
to  a  girl  whom  he  has  never  seen.  In  America 
he  sees  the  western  ideals  of  marriage,  the  free 
choice  of  bride  and  groom,  the  years  of  acquaint- 
ance which  precede  marriage,  and  comes  to  the 
[146] 


THE  EMANCIPATION  OF  WOMEN 

conviction  that  he  cannot  marry  the  fiancee  in 
China.  He  writes  to  his  father  begging  that  a 
release  be  arranged.  In  old  China  such  action 
would  cause  immense  scandal,  and  the  father 
belongs  to  old  China.  He  cannot  accede  to  the 
son's  request.  The  son  also  refuses  to  yield. 
At  length  the  father  cables  that  he  himself  is 
very  ill  and  wishes  to  see  his  son  before  he  dies. 
The  son  hastens  home,  to  find  not  only  that  the 
illness  has  been  feigned,  but  that  the  plans  for 
the  wedding  are  all  made.  The  whole  weight 
of  Chinese  social  code  falls  upon  the  back  of  the 
young  student  and  the  marriage  takes  place. 

The  bride  is  brought  to  the  United  States  and 
placed  in  school,  with  the  hope  that  she  may 
prepare  herself  to  take  her  place  in  a  home  which 
will  have  to  adopt  Western  standards.  She 
fails  to  realize  the  gulf  which  she  must  cross 
and  in  a  short  time  it  becomes  absolutely  evident 
that  the  marriage  is  a  sheer  impossibility.  The 
groom  rebels  and  refuses  to  bind  himself  to 
partnership  with  one  who  is  so  widely  separated 
from  him  in  ideals  and  attainments.  There  is  a 
divorce,  a  scandal  in  China,  and  the  young  man 
remarries,  this  time  selecting  as  the  bride  of  his 
own  choice  a  girl  whose  training  has  been  similar 
to  his  own. 

That  is  a  true  story.  I  could  tell  a  dozen  similar 
ones,  although  in  some  of  the  other  cases  the 
husband's  life  is  quite  ruined  when  he  returns 
to  his  affianced  bride,  only  to  find  that  she  has 
absolutely  refused  to  accept  education  or  other 
[  147  ] 


I'HE  DEMOCRATIC  MOVEMENT  IN  ASIA 

opportunities  for  improvement  and  is  nothing 
more  than  a  menial  servant.  On  the  other  hand 
I  know  of  a  briUiant  young  man,  a  Christian, 
who,  finding  himself  thus  unequally  yoked  with 
a  bride  in  whose  selection  he  had  no  choice, 
accepted  the  conditions,  took  his  bride  to  his 
own  European  house,  and  bravely  carried  out 
the  tragic  part  assigned  to  him  by  a  social  sys- 
tem which  yields  only  an  inch  at  a  time,  always 
grudgingly. 

When  the  Chinese  emigrate  to  the  Straits 
they  are  likely  to  relax  their  loyalty  to  these 
old  conventions.  I  attended  in  Singapore  a  wed- 
ding where  the  groom,  a  graduate  of  the  Anglo- 
Chinese  College,  had  so  far  imbibed  Western 
ideals  of  women  that  he  had  urged  his  suit  for 
five  years,  pleading  with  the  girl  on  his  knees 
before  she  would  accept  him. 

Five  hundred  women  attended  the  meeting  of 
the  Hindu  National  Congress  in  Lucknow  in 
1917.  Two  hundred  women  led  the  singing;  Mrs. 
Naidau,  wife  of  the  court  physician  to  His  High- 
ness the  Nizam  of  Hyderabad,  a  poetess  of  note, 
moved  the  resolution  asking  the  British  Govern- 
ment to  rescind  its  law  forbidding  Indians  to 
carry  firearms.  Only  ten  years  ago  these  things 
would  have  been  quite  impossible. 

Most  amazing  of  all  is  the  fact  that  the  next 
Hindu  National  Congress  actually  elected  a 
woman,  Mrs.  Annie  Besant,  as  president.  In 
measuring  Mrs.  Besant's  strange  and  sinister 
influence  on  Indian  politics  in  the  Home  Rule 
[148] 


THE  EMANCIPATION  OF  WOMEN 

agitation,  one  must  not  overlook  the  fact  that 
her  greatest  significance  lies  in  the  fact  that  she, 
a  woman,  won  a  place  of  superiority  and  leader- 
ship among  a  great  number  of  people  who  have 
always  assigned  woman  to  a  place  of  inferiority 
and  seclusion.  There  is  a  general  feeUng  in 
India  that  the  springs  of  inspiration  for  the  present 
Home  Rule  agitation  are  to  be  found  among  the 
women,  even  though  the  purdah  hangs  between 
them  and  the  public  eye.  At  any  rate  it  is  a  well 
known  fact  that  many  of  the  leading  women  of 
India  who  have  renounced  the  purdah  are  under 
police  surveillance  and  their  free  movement  from 
province  to  province  is  proscribed.  The  most 
radical  sentiments  with  reference  to  Home  Rule 
which  I  have  heard  uttered  were  from  women. 

Just  how  strong  the  feminist  sentiment  is  in 
India  would  be  hard  to  define,  for  India  is  the 
land  of  the  purdah  and  of  mystery.  That  it 
grows  slowly  is  evidenced  by  the  following  letter 
recently  addressed  to  the  Hindu  Social  Reformer 
and  published  in  its  columns: 

"We  are  and  always  shall  be  called  a  backward 
race  till  we  properly  appreciate  the  right  of 
Indian  womanhood.  Till  we  admit  them  to  their 
proper  position.  We  deny  them  the  simple  rights 
of  human  beings  and  how  and  when  are  we  going 
to  realize  that  they  are  veritable  goddesses  on 
earth  .f^  It  is  no  use  our  bragging  about  our  progress 
till  the  Indian  woman  has  even  a  single  com- 
plaint against  us  to  make  before  God!  Brother 
readers,  my  dear  co-religionists,  if  you  ever  wish 
[149] 


THE  DEMOCRATIC  MOVEMENT  IN  ASIA 

to  take  your  proper  place  in  the  committee  of 
nations,  stop  all  the  shameful  injustice  you  are 
dealing  out  to  your  noble  sisters.  For  God's  sake 
bestow  thought  upon  the  condition  of  the  Hindu 
widows!  Your  indulging  in  political  homilies, 
your  assuming  airs  in  the  national  press,  your 
passing  before  the  world  as  wronged  innocents, 
all  will  be  of  no  avail.  There  is  justice  in  God's 
Kingdom!  And  ye  shall  get  it  if  ye  deserve. 
His  mercy  endureth  forever  for  those  that  de- 
serve it.  May  you  try  your  best  to  deserve 
even  a  particle  of  it. 

Yours  truly, 

S.  S.  Bhat." 

The  part  which  the  missions  are  playing  in 
India  in  the  emancipation  of  women  is  a  brilliant 
story.  Unfortunately  few  of  the  incidents  which 
illustrate  the  character  of  the  influence  can  be 
told.  I  have  sat  by  the  hour  in  breathless  interest 
listening  as  women  missionaries  and  their  assist- 
ants told  of  what  happens  behind  the  purdah, 
only  to  be  solemnly  sworn  at  the  end  of  each 
tale  not  to  divulge  enough  of  the  facts  to  make 
the  story  worth  repeating.  The  Indian,  whether 
he  be  Hindu  or  Mohammedan,  is  extremely 
sensitive  on  the  subject  of  his  treatment  of 
women.  He  feels  that  the  missionary  has  mis- 
represented his  case.  The  missionary  knows,  on 
the  other  hand,  that  to  publish  what  she  knows 
would  immediately  close  the  door  of  the  zenana 
and  make  the  continuance  of  her  work  all  but 
impossible.  I  have  purposely  drawn  Indian 
[150] 


THE  SOCIAL  ORDER  OF  THE  IN- 
DIAN VILLAGE  18  REVEALED  IN  THE 
STATUS  OP  ITS  WOMEN.  THERE  ARE 
INDICATIONS  THAT  THE  CLOSE  OF 
THE  WAR  WILL  MARK  THE  OPENING 
OF  A  NEW  ERA  FOR  THE  WOMEN 
OF  THE  EAST  AS  WELL  AS  OP  THE 
WEST. 


THE  EMANCIPATION  OF  WOMEN 

gentlemen  into  a  discussion  of  the  place  of  women 
and  argued  with  them  even  hotly  for  the  sake 
of  bringing  out  their  best  defense.  At  length 
one  comes  to  the  point  where  our  premises  are 
irreconcilable.  The  average  Indian  has  the  un- 
shaken conviction  that  woman  is  essentially  an 
inferior  creature.  He  is  possessor,  protector,  and 
lord. 

It  must  be  admitted  that  there  is  a  certain 
basis  in  truth  for  his  contention,  so  far  as  it 
relates  to  his  race.  The  Indian  woman  has  been 
imprisoned  for  centuries,  suppressed,  and  re- 
pressed. This  heritage  from  the  past  has  left 
its  mark  on  the  woman  of  today.  The  purdah 
is  a  protection  which,  in  the  present  estate  of 
Indian  women,  it  is  not  very  desirable  to  remove. 
Before  Indian  womanhood  can  be  emancipated  it 
must  be  fortified  with  education  and  with  new 
ideals.  Only  one  per  cent  of  the  women  of  all 
India  are  literate  even  in  the  vernacular.  The 
Government,  thus  far,  has  been  content  to  allow 
the  Indian  to  set  the  pace  in  women's  education. 
Consequently  the  pace  is  a  very  slow  one.  Sir 
James  Meston,  Lieutenant  Governor  of  the 
United  Provinces,  assured  me  that  he,  for  one, 
had  come  now  to  believe  that  the  Government 
must  change  its  policy  and  begin  very  definitely 
to  promote  the  education  of  girls. 

One  who  has  been  out  in  the  Indian  villages 

and  observed  the  low  position  of  women  in  the 

average  household,   and  with  that  fresh  in  his 

memory   comes   to   such   an   institution   as   the 

[151] 


THE  DEMOCRATIC  MOVEMENT  IN  ASIA 

Isabella  Thobum  College  for  girls  in  Lucknow, 
must  leave  the  compound  with  a  feeling  of  elation. 
It  usually  takes  about  three  generations  to  lift 
a  girl  from  a  village  home  to  the  college,  but 
when  the  pupil  arrives  she  bears  little  resem- 
blance to  her  timid,  untidy,  ignorant  sister. 
Most  of  the  students  there  are  second  or  third 
generation  Christians.  And  yet  one  also  sees 
girls  of  high  position — the  daughters  of  a  court 
physician  who  have  prevailed  upon  their  father 
to  allow  them  to  prepare  themselves  to  take  up 
his  profession,  the  niece  of  a  Rajah,  girls  who 
must  observe  the  purdah  while  home  on  vaca- 
tions but  who  discard  it  as  the  returning  train 
nears  Lucknow.  Even  among  the  Hindu  students 
there  are  only  three  who  still  insist  upon  observ- 
ing caste  rules  and  are  therefore  willing  to  eat 
by  themselves,  served  with  food  prepared  by 
their  own  caste  cook. 

It  must  be  agreed  that  the  women  of  India  are 
quite  as  much  bound  by  their  own  ignorance, 
conservatism,  and  craving  for  conformity  as  they 
are  by  any  restrictions  imposed  by  the  men. 
The  hope  of  India  lies  in  just  such  education  of 
girls  as  the  Isabella  Thoburn  College  is  demon- 
strating. I  do  not  attempt  to  pass  on  the  ques- 
tion of  whether  the  position  of  Indian  women 
has  been  painted  worse  than  it  is  or  not,  but  I 
am  satisfied  that  India  will  never  be  a  very  safe 
place  for  democracy  until  these  old  valuations 
of  womanhood  are  replaced  by  others  more  like 
those  with  which  we  are  familiar. 
[152] 


THE  EMANCIPATION  OF  WOMEN 

"What  is  the  most  important  question  before 
the  women  of  the  Orient?"  I  asked  a  Japanese 
lady  whose  two  daughters  are  being  educated  in 
England.  She  herself  comes  of  distinguished 
lineage  and  is  of  exceptionally  high  social  position. 

"The  men,"  she  replied,  simply.  She  made  a 
gesture  of  disgust.  I  found  this  lady  inclined 
to  idealize  American  men  and  was  moved  there- 
fore by  a  sense  of  fairness  to  suggest  that  she 
was  far  too  generous  in  her  praises.  She  would 
not  permit  me  to  drag  her  idol  from  his  pedestal. 
When  I  left  the  room  I  am  told  that  she  exclaimed, 
"I  don't  care  what  he  says.  I  shall  never  believe 
that  American  men  are  as  bad  as  Japanese  men." 

Not  a  little  of  this  idealization  of  the  American 
has  come  from  the  fact  that  Asia  has  her  con- 
tacts with  us  through  a  morally  highly  selected 
class  of  men,  the  missionaries.  The  missionary 
is  worth  many  times  what  he  costs  to  our  country, 
by  the  way,  just  for  this  good  will  which  he 
tends  to  create.  It  is  also  this  steady  pressure 
of  idealism  that  is  carried  to  the  Orient  by  the 
missionary  which  stirs  Asia  to  the  emancipation 
of  her  women. 

One  goes  to  China  today  in  a  very  expectant 
frame  of  mind.  So  much  has  been  said  and  written 
in  praise  of  the  vitality  of  an  ancient  people, 
who  can  rise  and  cast  out  an  antiquated  form 
of  government,  that  one  comes  to  expect  that 
in  all  respects  the  people  of  the  new  republic 
have  set  their  feet  on  the  swift  road  to  enlighten- 
ment. Some  of  the  facts  one  meets  on  arrival 
[163] 


THE  DEMOCRATIC  MOVEMENT  IN  ASIA 

are  all  the  more  shocking.  No  further  away  from 
Shanghai  than  Foochow  there  are  still  kept  the 
shelves  in  the  open  street  where  the  bodies  of 
girl  babies,  killed  by  sanction  of  the  ancient 
custom  of  infanticide,  are  placed  to  await  the 
rounds  of  the  dead-collector.  In  those  same 
streets  roam  the  hungry  dogs  for  which  China 
is  famed.  Yes,  and  the  dogs  jump  up  and  pull 
down  from  the  shelves  the  little  uncollected 
bodies.  A  missionary  reported  recently,  that  in 
the  course  of  a  walk  in  a  single  afternoon  he  had 
seen  no  less  than  five  such  bodies  being  eaten  by 
the  dogs.  Not  pleasant,  of  course,  either  to  think 
or  write  about,  but  one  must  remember  that  this 
picture  belongs  in  any  fair  review  of  the  present 
position  of  women  in  China. 

Foot-binding  has  not  ceased,  reports  to  the 
contrary  notwithstanding.  One  can  hardly  escape 
in  any  interior  city  the  cries  of  the  little  girls 
who  are  now  having  their  feet  bound  for  the 
first  time.  I  have  taken  a  picture  of  a  group  of 
school  girls,  all  of  them  under  eleven  years  of 
age,  half  of  whom  had  had  their  feet  bound  be- 
fore the  parents  had  thought  of  sending  them 
to  the  mission  school.  Of  course  the  mission- 
aries insisted  that  the  feet  be  imbandaged  before 
the  girls  could  be  admitted,  but  the  damage  had 
been  done.  In  Shanghai,  where  one  expects  to 
find  the  new  ideas  most  firmly  rooted,  the  mis- 
sionaries in  the  fashionable  McTyeire  School  for 
girls  were  shocked  to  discover  that  the  feet  of 
the  little  daughter  of  the  school  gardener  were 
[154] 


THE  EMANCIPATION  OF  WOMEN 

already  being  put  into  the  bandages.  "You  can- 
not remain  here,"  they  said  to  the  parents,  "if  you 
are  going  to  bind  your  girl's  feet." 

"Very  well,"  replied  the  mother,  "then  we 
will  leave.  It  is  all  well  enough, for  the  Shanghai 
girls  to  have  big  feet,  but  my  daughter  must 
some  day  go  back  to  her  village  to  be  married. 
Who,  then,  would  marry  her  if  she  had  big  feet?" 
The  next  day  the  gardener  and  his  wife  departed. 

In  contrast  to  this  incident  is  the  fact  that 
among  the  pupils  in  the  school  itself  the  senti- 
ment against  bound  feet  is  so  strong  that  it  is 
quite  unnecessary  for  the  teachers  even  to  men- 
tion the  subject.  These  girls  are  too  fond  of 
basket-ball  and  hiking  to  accept  any  such  handi- 
cap as  bound  feet  imposes.  Besides,  they  live  in 
the  hope  that  they  may  come  to  America  to 
complete  their  education. 

The  McTyeire  School  has  "delayed  classes"  in 
its  lower  departments,  especially  for  older  women. 
It  is  not  uncommon  at  McTyeire  for  a  mother 
to  enter  her  daughter  in  the  kindergarten  and 
then  enter  herself  in  a  primary  class  in  order 
that  she  may  keep  pace  with  her  own  child. 
Conditions  in  Shanghai  are  exceptional  because 
of  the  large  commercial  interests  of  the  city. 
There  are  a  great  many  wealthy  families  there 
in  which  the  husbands  and  the  brothers  have 
been  educated  abroad.  The  effect  of  this  con- 
dition is  to  promote  the  rapid  progress  of  the 
wives,  sisters,  and  daughters.  The  demand  for 
girls'  schools  like  McTyeire  is,  therefore,  very 
[165] 


THE  DEMOCRATIC  MOVEMENT  IN  ASIA 

great.  There  are  always  from  ten  to  twenty 
McTyeire  girls  at  school  in  the  United  States 
and  England.  In  fact,  one  of  the  important 
functions  of  the  school  is  to  prepare  girls  to  go 
abroad  to  finish  their  education.  McTyeire  has, 
among  other  courses,  a  class  in  European  table 
manners,  a  knowledge  of  which  is  very  important 
when  the  girls  arrive  in  the  United  States. 

Suppose,  for  a  moment,  that  a  Chinese  family 
had  decided  to  educate  its  daughters.  What 
are  the  choices?  Only  two:  either  a  mission 
school  or  a  school  not  under  missionary  direction. 
The  government  or  the  Chinese  private  school 
for  girls  may  be  a  suitable  place  for  ambitious 
girls  to  be  baptized  into  the  modernism  of  the 
Western  world,  and  then  again  it  may  be  quite 
unsuitable.  It  cannot  be  denied  that  there  are 
not  a  few  Chinese  girls  from  progressive  families 
who  are  acquiring  rather  alarming  ideas  of  the 
liberties  which  belong  to  emancipated  woman- 
hood. 

Even  when  the  daughter  has  been  safely 
graduated  from  a  missionary  school  where  sound 
ideals  of  women's  place  have  been  planted,  the 
problem  is  not  yet  wholly  solved.  The  girls  of 
the  Western  world  inherit  a  code  of  conduct 
which  has  the  support  of  a  very  lively  public 
opinion.  The  Chinese  girl,  who  has  discarded 
the  old  code  of  her  people  and  hurled  defiance 
at  tradition  by  acquiring  a  modern  education, 
finds  no  new  code  of  conduct  waiting  to  carry  her 
on  after  she  has  left  the  school.  She  must  make 
1166] 


THE  HOPE  OF  NEW  CHINA  LIES 
VERY  LARGELY  IN  THE  EDUCATION 
OF  THE  GIRLS,  FOR  THE  CHINESE 
WOMEN  ARE  THE  GREAT  CONSERVA- 
TORS OF  THE  NATIONAL  LIFE.  TO 
EDUCATE  THE  BOYS  AND  NEGLECT 
THEIR  SISTERS  WOULD  BE  TO  INTRO- 
DUCE DEMORALIZATION  AND  CHAOS 
INTO  ;rHE  NEW   REPUBLIC. 


<»      •     1         .        •     « 


•    '*(■'?•' 


I 


THE  EMANCIPATION  OF  WOMEN 


er  own  code  and  she  may  draw  the  materials 
for  it  exclusively  from  French  novels.  One 
reads  something  of  the  difficulties  of  the  educated 
Chinese  girl  in  between  the  lines  of  the  advertise- 
ment of  a  Girls'  Letter  Writer  which  is  published 
by  the  Shanghai  Commercial  Press.  It  says: 
"The  number  of  girls  who  can  read  and  write 
is  now  increasing  very  rapidly  and  a  letter 
writer  suited  to  the  needs  of  a  girl  is  a  necessity. 
In  these  two  volumes  some  one  hundred  and 
sixty  examples  are  grouped  under  three  heads: 
letters  to  members  of  the  family,  to  relatives, 
and  to  schoolmates.  Their  language  is  discreet 
and  dignified." 

There  is  a  very  notable  list  of  mission  girls' 
schools  and  colleges  in  the  Orient.  One  wishes 
that  there  were  space  in  which  to  note  all  the 
fine  things  they  are  doing.  And  yet  one  finds 
that  out  of  the  total  number  of  mission  college 
students  in  China  only  eighteen  per  cent  are 
girls.  Ginling  College  in  Nanking,  which  has 
not  yet  graduated  its  first  class,  is  the  only  girls' 
college  to  maintain  real  college  standards,  and 
Ginling  is  having  difficulty  to  secure  properly 
prepared  students.  One  may  travel  for  days  in 
the  new  republic  and  not  find  a  single  door  open 
where  a  girl  may  obtain  even  a  fair  degree  of 
western  education.  To  a  large  extent  similar 
conditions  exist  throughout  the  Orient,  except 
in  Japan  and  the  Philippines.  At  present  there 
are  not  even  enough  schools  to  produce  the 
teachers  who  are  needed  to  staff  the  primary 
[  157  ] 


THE  DEMOCRATIC  MOVEMENT  IN  ASIA 

schools  for  girls.     Asia  bears  down  heavily  on 
any  effort  of  women  to  better  their  lot. 

On  the  other  hand  one  may  see  how  little  it  is 
possible  to  measure  the  woman  movement  in 
the  Orient  by  statistics.  A  page  from  my  journal 
gives  a  glimpse  of  the  vast  ranges  of  influence 
now  being  exercised  by  the  women  who  have 
already  been  emancipated.  Miss  Laura  White, 
formerly  of  the  Methodist  Mission  in  Nanking, 
has  now  undertaken  the  work  of  editor  for  the 
Christian  Literature  Society.  Among  her  duties 
is  to  edit  for  Chinese  women  a  magazine  similar 
to  our  women's  journals.  She  has  taken  into 
her  office  three  Chinese  girls  as  editorial  assistants. 
This  is  what  I  found  them  doing: 

Miss  Li,  whose  mother  recently  died,  is  now 
at  work  on  a  translation  of  Kathleen  Norris's 
"Mother,"  not  merely  translating  but  also  trans- 
posing the  plot  to  Chinese  locations  and  environ- 
ment, using  her  own  mother  as  the  model  for 
the  story.  Miss  Chen  is  translating  Jacob  Abbott's 
"Gentle  Manners  for  the  Training  of  the  Young," 
also  throwing  the  situations  as  well  as  the  lan- 
guage into  her  mother  tongue.  Miss  Yuan  is 
at  work  on  a  temperance  play,  having  recently 
finished  a  novel  called  "The  Home-makers." 
She  also  adapted  "The  Bent  Wing"  to  Chinese, 
laying  the  plot  in  Soochow.  Miss  White,  with 
the  help  of  her  able  assistants,  has  recently  put 
out  a  book,  "Looking  Motherwards,"  a  manual 
of  instructions  for  expectant  mothers.  These 
women  are  creating  the  vehicle,  a  modern  liter- 
[158] 


THE  EMANCIPATION  OF  WOMEN 

ary  form,  by  which  the  ideals  of  the  new  age 
are  being  carried  out  through  the  schools  and 
press  to  the  200,000,000  women  of  China. 

Every  phase  of  the  feminist  movement  in  the 
Western  world,  all  its  excesses  and  all  its  fine 
constructive  measures,  are  being  reflected  in 
miniature  in  Asia.  The  next  generation  in  the 
Orient  will  differ  from  the  present  one  in  no 
respect  more  notably  than  that  the  women  will 
have  more  of  justice  and  equality.  India  and 
China,  as  well  as  Japan  and  the  Philippines,  are 
undertaking  each  year  larger  enterprises  for  the 
education  of  girls.  Meanwhile,  the  missionary 
and  the  mission-trained  women  are  quietly  lead- 
ing their  sex,  helping  to  steer  it  into  courses  where 
it  will  avoid  the  pitfalls  and  dangers  which 
threaten  those  who  would  break  with  the  past 
too  abruptly. 


[169] 


REMAKING  THE  ORIENTAL 
SOCIAL  ORDER 


1 


CHAPTER  VIII 

REMAKING  THE  ORIENTAL 
SOCIAL  ORDER 

The  Yangtze  Engineering  Works  are  located 
six  miles  down  the  river  below  Hankow.  Some 
of  their  larger  contracts  consist  of  bridges  for 
the  Chinese  railways  and  ships  for  the  Japanese 
Government;  they  employ  about  1,500  men  and 
are  equipped  to  handle  almost  everything  in  the 
way  of  large  orders  for  the  new  China. 

When  Wong  Kwong,  the  president,  had  finished 
up  his  plant  and  assembled  his  machinery  from 
England,  Germany,  and  America,  he  decided  to 
go  a  step  further.  Why  not  erect  a  model  vil- 
lage for  the  employes?  He  was  famihar  with  the 
most  recent  experiments  of  this  sort  abroad. 
A  settlement  of  some  sort  was  bound  to  grow 
up  about  the  plant,  for  it  had  been  built  in  an 
isolated  spot.  But  the  deciding  factor  in  reaching 
his  conclusion  was  the  fact  that  he  was  a  Chris- 
tian, and  as  practical  as  a  man  would  have  to 
be  to  create  and  maintain  such  a  huge  modern 
enterprise  in  a  country  where  industrial  practice 
has  changed  little  in  ten  centuries.  Having 
accepted  the  principle  of  brotherly  love,  he  felt 
impelled  to  apply  it  with  thoroughness.  The 
model  village  was  built,  including  a  swimming 
pool,  a  church,  a  school  for  the  children  and 
[163] 


THE  DEMOCRATIC  MOVEMENT  IN  ASIA 

another  one  for  the  apprentices,  a  park,  a  tea- 
house, and  a  cooperative  store. 

The  project  did  not  turn  out  to  be  an  imme- 
diate success.  Mr.  Wong  had  not  figured  suffi- 
ciently on  his  unknown  quantities — the  wives. 
It  was  not  difficult  to  persuade  the  families  to 
move  into  these  new,  substantial  homes,  but  it 
was  not  so  simple  to  get  the  wives  to  adopt 
methods  of  housekeeping  suitable  to  their  new 
estate.  They  preferred  to  do  as  their  mothers 
did  and  in  their  mothers'  homes  the  line  between 
the  part  of  the  house  which  belonged  to  the 
family  and  the  part  which  belonged  to  the  pigs 
was  never  very  sharply  drawn.  In  a  few  weeks 
Wong  Kwong  was  reduced  to  despair;  his  fine 
houses  were  rapidly  becoming  pigpens. 

Up  to  this  point  in  the  story  Mr.  Wong's 
experience  may  have  had  in  it  much  in  common 
with  those  who  have  made  similar  experiments 
elsewhere,  but  we  do  not  recall  any  other  model 
village  enthusiast  who  has  followed  him  through 
the  next  steps  in  his  adventure. 

The  Wongs  live  in  the  French  Concession  in 
Hankow,  in  the  kind  of  house  which  one  is  likely 
to  find  in  the  better  residential  district  of  any 
French  provincial  city.  Mr.  Wong  took  his 
troubles  home  and  talked  them  over  with  his 
wife — itself  a  most  unusual  proceeding  for  China. 
The  conclusion  of  the  Wong  family  council  was 
that,  although  they  could  do  very  little  to  reach 
the  wives  directly,  there  was  a  good  opportunity 
for  an  indirect  approach.  The  Orient  is  famous 
[  164  ] 


I 


A  CORNER  IN  THE  SHOP  OF  THE 
YANGTZE  ENGINEERING  WORKS  AT 
HANKOW,  A  THOROUGHLY  MODERN 
INDUSTRIAL  PLANT,  WHICH  IS  EN- 
GAGED IN  SHIPPING  AND  BRIDGE 
BUILDING  ON  A  LARGE  SCALE. 


REMAKING  THE  SOCIAL  ORDER 

for  this  kind  of  advance  by  detours.  The  obvious 
trouble  with  the  model  village  was  that  the 
people  who  lived  there  did  not  know  any  better. 
The  Wongs  drew  up  a  guest  list  and  invited  some 
of  the  key  husbands  in  groups  to  come  up  to 
Hankow  to  eat  at  the  Wong  table,  sleep  in  the 
Wong  beds,  and  observe  the  new  styles  in  living. 
The  experiment  was  a  huge  success.  The  hus- 
bands went  back  to  their  families  and,  by  what 
means  we  know  not,  explained  to  their  wives 
that  if  they  were  to  live  in  model  villages  they 
would  have  to  brace  up  and  become  model  house- 
keepers. 

China,  Japan,  and  India  are  now  beginning 
to  pass  in  their  industrial  development  from 
household,  hand  production  to  big  factories  and 
power  machinery.  In  the  next  century  one  of 
the  most  marked  changes  in  the  Orient  will  be 
the  growth  of  large  industrial  cities.  Hankow, 
for  example,  may  possibly  become  one  of  the 
greatest  and  most  highly  congested  industrial 
centers  of  the  world.  At  present  the  population 
of  Asia  is  eighty  or  ninety  per  cent  rural,  resem- 
bling the  Western  world  before  the  introduction 
of  labor-saving  machinery.  It  is  often  predicted 
that  this  industrial  development  in  Asia  will 
certainly  be  accompanied  by  the  creation  of  new 
horrors  of  economic,  industrial,  and  social  mal- 
adjustment similar  to,  but  far  greater  than, 
those  which  followed  the  same  kind  of  growth 
in  the  Western  world.  It  is  quite  probable  that 
the  exploitation  of  child  and  woman  labor  in 
[165] 


THE  DEMOCRATIC  MOVEMENT  IN  ASIA 

the  weaving  industry  in  Japan,  China,  and  India, 
the  atrocious  hours  of  labor  in  China  and  Japan, 
the  disreputable  housing  conditions,  congestion 
of  population,  growth  of  slums,  development  of 
large  bodies  of  migratory  laborers,  already  in 
evidence,  are  but  the  preface  to  some  very  un- 
lovely chapters  about  to  be  written  in  the  develop- 
ment of  Asia. 

The  missionary  sees  that  he  has  come  to  the 
Orient  for  just  such  a  time  as  this.  It  is  of  the 
highest  importance  that  he  should  be  there.  It 
cannot  be  recalled  too  often  that  Christianity 
and  Western  civilization  are  not  at  all  identical. 
The  missionary  goes,  the  trader  follows.  They 
do  not  carry  the  same  set  of  purposes,  or  the 
same  stock  of  ideals.  One  carries  power  ma- 
chinery, capital,  and  the  impulse  to  increased  and 
effective  production;  the  other  carries  the  human- 
itarian ideals  without  which  the  mechanics  of 
civilization  become  more  of  a  menace  than  a 
benefit. 

Christianity  in  the  Orient  is  laying  an  increas- 
ing stress  upon  the  social  implications  of  the 
Christian  religion.  Perhaps  there  is  no  other 
phase  of  the  Christian  movement  in  Asia  which 
so  completely  demonstrates  the  value  and  ne- 
cessity of  Christian  ideals  for  the  Eastern  nations. 
As  the  propaganda  reaches  up  more  and  more 
into  the  governing  classes  of  society,  it  seems 
likely  that  one's  fears  for  the  future  industrial 
life  of  the  Orient  may  be  happily  disappointed. 
One  sees  evidences  of  this  both  in  the  very  prac- 
[166] 


REMAKING  THE  SOCIAL  ORDER 

tical  way  in  which  Christian  manufacturers  are 
applying  their  religion  in  the  management  of 
their  business,  and  also  in  the  emulation  aroused 
among  their  competitors.  A  real  public  sentiment 
is  being  created  to  deal  with  these  grave  prob- 
lems which  are  already  in  view. 

A  very  romantic  biographical  sketch  from 
Japan  may  serve  to  illustrate  these  statements. 
One  wishes  that  there  were  space  for  the  in- 
clusion of  other  stories  of  a  similar  nature. 

Mr.  Tsurukichi  Hatano,  of  the  Gunsei  Silk 
Filature  Company,  Ayabe,  describes  himself  as 
the  Japanese  Prodigal  Son.  And  he  is  only  an 
adopted  son  at  that.  As  a  young  boy  he  was 
taken  by  a  family  which  had  no  male  heir,  and 
in  due  time  he  married  a  daughter  of  the  family. 
He  plunged  into  riotous  living  with  a  vengeance 
and  eventually  the  family  decided  to  take  legal 
measures  to  prevent  the  adopted  heir  from  squan- 
dering the  entire  family  fortune.  Before  they 
had  time  to  act  he  scooped  up  all  the  money 
and  valuables  in  sight  and  fled  to  Kyoto.  Having 
reduced  himself  to  the  gutter  by  a  life  of  the 
wildest  extravagance,  he  stumbled  one  day  into 
a  Christian  Rescue  Hall  in  Kobe  and  was  even- 
tually converted  to  Christianity. 

The  prodigal  returned  to  his  native  village, 
effected  a  reconciliation  with  his  wife  and  family, 
and  accepted  the  only  position  open  to  him, 
that  of  teacher  in  the  grammar  school  at  four 
yen  a  month.  For  a  long  time  his  fellow-towns- 
men stood  aloof  and  he  had  a  difficult  time. 
[167] 


THE  DEMOCRATIC  MOVEMENT  IN  ASIA 

Hatano  was  not  discouraged.    He  noticed  that 
the  farmers  in  that  region  were  trying  to  raise 
cotton,  although  the  soil  was  unsuited  to  the 
crop,    whereas    the    eggs    of    uncultivated    silk 
cocoons  were  commanding  excellent  prices.     He 
tried  to  persuade  the  farmers  to  undertake  silk 
growing,  but  most  of  them  refused  to  heed  his 
advice.    Was  it  not  given  by  one  who  had  brought 
disgrace  upon  his  family  and  his   village.'^     At 
length  the  schoolteacher  found  one  farmer  who 
would  listen  and  even  put  up  some  money  for 
an  investigation.    Starting  with  this  slight  assist- 
ance,  Mr.   Hatano   began   a   study   of   the   silk 
industry  and  in  time  made  himself  an  expert  in 
every  phase  of  it.     Today  the  county  in  which 
Ayabe  is  situated  produces  the  best  silk  thread 
in  Japan  and  Mr.  Hatano  has  a  silk  filature  which 
employs    3,000    workers.      The   company    is    an 
adventure  in  the  Christian  organization  of  indus- 
try, paying  fifteen  or  twenty  per  cent  dividends 
each  year.     So  well  established   is   the   Gunsei 
Company  that  when,  at  the  outbreak  of  the  War, 
it  became  necessary  to  secure  additional  capital 
and  9,000  new  shares  of  stock  were  offered  at 
par  there  were  immediate  applications  for  18,000. 
It  is  a  pity  that  the  tourist  seldom  gets  nearer 
to  Ayabe  than  the  Kodzu  rapids  up  the  river 
from  Kyoto.     If  one  will  only  continue  on  the 
train  for  another  fifty  miles  he  will  not  only  find 
himself  in  a  charming,  unspoiled  Japanese  vil- 
lage, but  will  also  see  modem  Japanese  industry 
from  an  angle  which  ought  never  to  be  forgotten 
[168] 


REMAKING  THE  SOCIAL  ORDER 

when  drawing  conclusions  about  the  future  of 
Japan. 

One  will  better  understand  the  Ayabe  silk 
filatures  and  appreciate  Mr.  Hatano  if  one  first 
has  some  comprehension  of  the  deplorable  con- 
ditions which  have  accompanied  the  development 
of  modern  industries  in  many  other  places  in 
the  Empire.  The  Japan  Year  Book  for  1916  is 
authority  for  the  statement  that  more  than  half 
a  million  women,  three-fifths  of  whom  are  under 
twenty  years  of  age,  are  employed  in  factories. 
In  sericulture  and  silk  reeling  nine  in  every  ten 
employes  are  women  or  girls.  It  is  estimated 
that  four  out  of  every  five  women  factory  workers 
leave  the  factories  each  year.  Two  hundred 
thousand  new  women  workers  are  recruited  an- 
nually and  out  of  this  number  120,000  never 
return  to  their  homes.  About  one  fourth  of 
those  who  do  go  back  have  tuberculosis.  Long 
hours — as  many  as  sixteen  in  a  day  seven  days 
in  the  week — bad  housing,  tuberculosis,  yes,  and 
prostitution,  travel  together  in  the  East  as  well 
as  in  the  West. 

Japan  is  slowly  awakening  to  the  dangers  to 
health  and  morality  which  menace  the  Empire 
because  of  these  growing  evils.  A  new  public 
sentiment  on  the  subject  of  the  exploitation  of 
women  and  children  in  factories  is  marked  by 
the  new  factory  law  which  went  into  effect  in 
1917.  But  the  law  has  so  many  exceptions  written 
into  it  that  it  will  accomplish  very  little.  Public 
sentiment  is  still  largely  apathetic,  and  this 
[169] 


THE  DEMOCRATIC  MOVEMENT  IN  ASIA 

makes   Mr.    Hatano's   enterprises   all   the   more 
remarkable. 

The  Ayabe  factory  is  liberally  furnished  with 
mottoes  such  as:  "Love  transforms  the  world"; 
"Holiness  is  the  foundation  of  all  things";  "Sin- 
cerity to  God."  The  Silk  Workers'  Training 
School  has  for  its  very  practical  motto:  "A  good 
tree  cannot  bring  forth  evil  fruit,  neither  can  a 
corrupt  tree  bring  forth  good  fruit."  But  these 
lofty  themes  are  not  limited  to  verbal  expression. 
They  are  also  worked  out  in  sanitary  baths  for 
the  employes,  beautiful  dormitories,  school  rooms, 
and  shorter  hours  of  labor.  There  are  a  night 
school  for  employes,  a  day  school  for  apprentices, 
a  spotlessly  clean  hospital,  a  holiday  every  ten 
days  for  the  girls,  and  religious  services  twice 
a  month.  When  I  expressed  to  Mr.  Hatano 
my  surprise  that  he  was  able  to  do  so  much  for 
his  employes  and  still  compete  successfully  with 
other  filatures,  he  assured  me  that  his  principles 
had  proved  to  be  good  business  policy.  The 
employes  turn  out  the  best  silk  in  Japan,  be- 
cause they  are  so  much  interested  in  their  work 
and  so  loyal  to  the  factory. 

Unfortunately  Japan  is  entering  upon  her 
industrial  age  with  a  very  large  proportion  of 
her  large  employers  of  labor  not  believing  in  the 
principles  which  Mr.  Hatano  practices,  but  it 
ought  to  be  noted  that  there  are  at  least  a  score 
of  them,  most  of  whom  are  Christians,  who  do 
believe  in  Mr.  Hatano's  ideas  and  are  working 
along  similar  lines.  At  present  industrial  organ- 
[170] 


REMAKING  THE  SOCIAL  ORDER 

ization  and  trade  unions  are  sternly  forbidden. 
The  movement  for  the  betterment  of  labor  con- 
ditions is  almost  entirely  limited  to  the  efforts 
of  these  few  men  who  have  gained  their  sense 
of  social  responsibility  from  the  West  and  from 
Christianity. 

The  industrial  revolution  will  come  very  much 
more  rapidly  in  Asia  than  it  came  in  the  West. 
The  Orient  is  now  being  presented  with  the 
accumulated  fund  of  automatic  devices  for  ma- 
chine production  which  it  has  taken  the  Western 
world  more  than  a  century  to  develop.  Hitherto 
it  has  been  assumed  that  the  Asiatic  is  too  in- 
exact and  careless  in  his  mechanical  processes 
to  produce  a  high  grade  of  finished  product. 
Every  factory  in  the  Orient  starts  with  a  large 
proportion  of  Europeans  on  its  staff  to  direct, 
supervise,  and  perfect  the  work  turned  out  by 
the  native  workman.  The  disturbance  of  labor 
conditions  due  to  the  outbreak  of  the  War  has 
resulted  in  the  subtraction  of  most  of  the  for- 
eigners from  these  Asiatic  manufacturing  con- 
cerns. Formerly  British  and  Continental 
machinery  was  generally  used.  It  has  now  been 
discovered  that  the  introduction  of  the  most 
modern  automatic  machinery  from  America  suffi- 
ciently supplements  the  ineptitude  of  the  native 
workman,  so  that  in  the  future  the  services  of 
foreigners  will  be  very  largely  dispensed  with. 
The  Tata  Iron  and  Steel  Company  of  India,  for 
example,  now  has  only  a  meager  half  dozen 
Americans  employed,  although  at  the  outbreak 
[HI] 


THE  DEMOCRATIC  MOVEMENT  IN  ASIA 

of  the  War  there  were  forty  Americans  in  the 
blast  furnace  department  alone,  and  a  large 
number  of  British  and  German  employes  in 
other  departments. 

The  industrial  evils  which  follow  large  scale 
production,  although  already  existing  in  Asia, 
are  not  yet  sufficiently  widespread  so  that  one 
may  speak  of  industrial  reform.  The  present 
movement  is  directed  largely  toward  the  pre- 
venting of  conditions  which  may  some  day  de- 
mand reform.  The  missionary  is  the  guest  of 
the  country  in  which  he  lives,  and  is  almost 
certain  to  render  himself  unacceptable  sooner  or 
later  if  he  personally  and  actively  agitates  for 
reform.  His  influence  for  social  reform  is  nearly 
always  indirect,  through  the  converts  who  look 
to  him  for  instruction  and  leadership.  It  will 
always  be  very  difficult,  except  perhaps  in  China, 
to  point  directly  to  a  single  missionary  and 
assert  that  he  is  responsible  for  a  certain  reform. 
On  the  other  hand,  it  is  equally  certain  that 
the  sum  total  of  the  missionary  influence  through- 
out the  Orient  is  a  powerful  leaven  in  moving 
for  every  modification  of  bad  practices. 

The  indirect  influence  of  the  missionary  on 
social  evils  is  nowhere  more  marked  than  in 
India.  There  are  today  no  less  than  a  dozen 
active  agencies  for  social  reform  which,  while 
not  Christian,  some  of  them  being  even  violently 
anti-Christian,  can  be  traced  directly  to  the 
influence  of  the  missionaries. 

The  Brahmo  Samaj  is  a  Hindu  reform  sect 
[172] 


THIS  EIGHTEEN-YEAR-OLD  GIRL, 
A  WIDOW  AND  THE  DAUGHTER  OF 
THE  HEADMAN,  HAS  THE  PROUD 
DISTINCTION  OF  BEING  THE  ONLY 
GIRL  IN  HER  VILLAGE  WHO  CAN- 
READ.  SHE  IS  AN  EXCELLENT  EX- 
AMPLE OF  WHAT  EVEN  A  VERY 
CRUDE  MISSIONARY  SCHOOL  CAN 
ACCOMP1.ISH   IN   A   FEW   YEARS. 


REMAKING  THE  SOCIAL  ORDER 

which  occupies  something  of  the  same  relation 
toward  orthodox  Hinduism  which  the  Unitarian 
and  UniversaHst  churches  of  the  West  occupy 
toward  orthodox  Christianity.  The  Brahmo 
Samaj  owes  its  existence  directly  to  Christianity, 
for  it  was  an  effort  to  stop  the  propagation  of 
Christianity  by  reforming  Hinduism.  Its  program 
includes  the  emancipation  of  women  and  the 
abolition  of  caste.  Its  founder,  Rajah  Ram 
Mohun  Roy,  was  all  but  a  Christian;  he  wrote 
an  essay  on  "The  Precepts  of  Jesus,  the  Way  of 
Peace  and  Happiness,"  even  accepting  many  of 
the  miracles  of  Jesus.  He  describes  Christ  as 
intercessor  and  final  judge  of  the  world.  After 
his  death  the  father  of  Rabindranath  Tagore, 
the  poet,  became  the  leader  of  the  Brahmo. 
He  believed  in  caste  and  gave  the  movement 
a  strongly  anti-Christian  flavor.  The  result 
was  a  split  in  the  ranks,  at  which  Keshub  Chun- 
der  Sen  led  out  a  faction  which  was  strongly 
Christian. 

Keshub  baptized  himself  in  a  tank  and  then 
baptized  his  disciples.  On  his  death  bed  he 
called  his  singing  apostle  and  asked  him  to 
sing  an  old  Bengali  hymn  written  by  a  Baptist 
missionary  portraying  the  Gethsemane  scene  of 
the  gospels.  The  apostle  could  not  recall  it  and 
so  improvised  a  new  hymn  on  the  theme:  "Let 
this  cup  pass  from  me."  There  are  now  three 
sects  of  the  Brahmo  Samaj  and  most  of  the 
members  would  endorse  a  strictly  Christian  code 
of  social  ethics.  Christian  books  of  devotion  are 
[173] 


THE  DEMOCRATIC  MOVEMENT  IN  ASIA 

freely  used  by  them.  Their  religious  services 
and  their  churches  are  closely  modeled  after 
Christian  styles. 

The  Arya  Samaj,  a  much  larger  and  more 
aggressive  Hindu  reform  sect,  is  violently  anti- 
Christian  and  its  members  are  responsible  for 
some  of  the  bitterest  persecution  which  the 
Christian  converts  have  to  endure,  and  yet  the 
movement  aims  at  a  purification  of  the  Hindu 
religion  which  will  separate  it  from  some  of  the 
grosser  and  more  cruel  practices.  The  Arya 
teaches  monotheism  and  the  Fatherhood  of  God, 
and  enjoins  the  education  of  girls,  postponement 
of  marriage,  and  abolition  of  hereditary  caste. 
Back  of  the  Arya  movement  lies  the  fear  that 
the  Christianizing  of  the  people  will  denationalize 
them.  The  Arya  draws  to  itself  many  of  the 
political  progressives  and  even  the  malcontents, 
although  it  cannot  be  classified  as  a  political 
party.  Most  of  its  purposes  for  social  reform 
are  in  substantial  accord  with  Christianity. 

Another  movement,  closely  associated  with  the 
Brahmo  and  more  particularly  with  the  Arya 
Samaj,  is  the  work  for  the  depressed  classes 
and  untouchables.  Ram  Baj  Dutt  of  Lahore,  a 
Brahmin  land  owner  and  a  graduate  of  Forman 
Christian  College,  is  one  of  the  most  active  in 
this  work.  His  purpose  is  to  persuade  the  caste 
people  to  modify  their  rules  with  regard  to  the 
untouchables,  of  whom  there  are  no  less  than 
forty  millions  in  India,  so  that  the  outcastes 
may  be  readmitted  to  the  caste  order.  He  has 
[  174  ] 


REMAKING  THE  SOCIAL  ORDER 

a  well-established  ritual  that  includes  baptism 
in  which,  with  that  show  of  ceremony  which  the 
Indian  loves,  he  gathers  the  people  of  the  village 
together  and  has  the  outcaste  people,  whose  lot 
is  ordinarily  more  miserable  than  that  of  slaves, 
formally  received  back  into  the  caste. 

"I  tell  them,"  said  Ram  Baj  Dutt,  speaking 
of  the  outcastes,  "  *Your  blood  is  the  same  as 
that  of  a  rajah.  You  are  not  a  high-caste  man 
simply  because  you  have  not  been  educated, 
but  your  children  can  go  as  high  as  they  de- 
serve. If  the  high-caste  people  still  lay  upon 
you  these  menial  tasks,  tell  them  to  do  their 
own  dirty  work!'  Then  I  lead  the  whole  crowd. 
Brahmins,  Hindus,  Mussulmans,  and  outcastes, 
to  the  village  well  and  there  we  have  a  sort  of 
communion  service,  each  taking  a  drink  from  the 
common  vessel."  Probably  at  least  100,000  out- 
castes in  the  Punjab  alone  have  been  taken  back 
into  the  castes  as  a  result  of  the  Arya  Samaj 
and  this  Purification  Society.  There  are  several 
other  similar  societies  of  greater  or  less  extent 
at  work  for  the  amelioration  of  the  outcaste 
people.  It  is  probably  not  unfair  to  say  that 
not  one  of  them  would  have  been  started  had 
it  not  been  for  the  aggressive  propaganda  of 
the  missionaries.  The  editor  of  The  Indian 
Social  Reformer f  K.  Natarajan,  said  to  me: 

"The  fear  of  the  missionary  has  been  the  be- 
ginning of  much  social  wisdom  in  India.  The 
missions  have  interpreted  the  spiritual  side  of 
Western  civihzation  to  us,  whereas  without  their 
[175] 


THE  DEMOCRATIC  MOVEMENT  IN  ASIA 

presence  we  would  have  seen  only  its  material 
expressions.  I  know  from  personal  experience 
that  the  reading  of  the  Bible  has  greatly  in- 
fluenced modern  social  thought  in  this  country. 
Generally  speaking  there  is  a  great  reverence 
for  Christ.  The  missionaries  are  our  friends. 
On  the  other  hand,  social  reform  receives  only 
slight  support  from  the  Indian  Christians." 

This  last  statement,  in  so  far  as  it  is  true, 
is  notable.  The  Indian  Christian  is  very  fond 
of  the  theological  end  of  Christianity.  "Why 
are  you  Christians?"  I  have  asked  many  con- 
verts. The  answer  is  almost  always  the  same: 
"Because  I  believe  that  Jesus  Christ  is  the  in- 
carnate Son  of  God  and  the  only  sufficient  Saviom* 
from  sin."  If  one  were  to  ask  a  Chinese  convert 
why  he  is  a  Christian  he  would  probably  reply, 
"Because  I  wish  to  help  my  country."  At  the 
present  moment  it  is  probably  fortunate  for 
Christianity  in  India  that  the  converts  have 
not  been  too  much  attracted  to  the  subject  of 
social  reform,  for  it  is  nearly  always  traveling 
along  the  edge  of  political  propaganda.  With 
the  present  excited  condition  of  the  educated 
Indian  mind,  a  pronounced  patriotic,  nationalist. 
Christian  movement  might  be  very  destructive 
to  church  and  state  alike.  It  must  be  remem- 
bered, however,  that  while  the  Indian  convert 
does  not  join  the  Hindu  social  reform  move- 
ments, he  himself  is,  above  all,  the  great  apostle 
of  reform,  for  he  goes  back  to  his  village,  sets 
his  own  house  in  order,  opens  a  school,  starts  a 
[176] 


REMAKING  THE  SOCIAL  ORDER 

church,  and  practices  every  one  of  the  reforms 
which  the  reformers  agitate  to  accomplish. 

It  is  mifortunate  that  the  Hmits  of  space  do 
not  permit  the  extended  treatment  of  some 
special  reforms  like  the  temperance,  opium,  and 
morphine  agitations,  which  in  all  countries  from 
India  to  Japan  are  now  receiving  great  attention 
from  the  Christian  leaders.  Japan  has  never 
permitted  the  importation  of  opium  for  general 
use  and  China  has  effectually  stamped  out  the 
smoking  habit  among  all  save  the  official  classes, 
but  the  opium  business  still  has  its  roots  deep 
in  Malaysia  and  in  other  more  remote  regions. 
It  was  asserted,  not  without  a  good  show  of 
authority,  at  the  recent  China  Medical  Congress 
at  Canton  that  morphine  imported  from  Japan 
is  rapidly  taking  the  place  of  opium.  It  is  re- 
ported that  not  less  than  sixteen  tons  of  morphine 
were  imported  into  China  in  a  single  year.  The 
extension  of  the  Japanese  Post  Office  and  the 
laws  of  extra-territoriality  in  China  greatly  facil- 
itate this  traffic.  The  use  of  liquor  is  also  spread- 
ing with  alarming  rapidity  in  Asia  as  well  as  in 
Africa.  Both  the  missionaries  and  the  native 
converts  are,  however,  alert  to  these  dangers, 
and  many  interesting  stories  might  be  told 
illustrating  how  Christianity  is  rendering  an 
effective  service  in  the  protection  of  the  Eastern 
races  from  the  evils  which  have  followed  the 
introduction  of  Western  civilization. 

The  storm  center  of  social  reform  in  Asia  for 
the  next  quarter  of  a  century  is  likely  to  be  over 
[177] 


THE  DEMOCRATIC  MOVEMENT  IN  ASIA 

the  relation  of  the  sexes.    This  movement  I  will 
describe  more  in  detail. 

If  any  statement  of  the  menace  of  polygamy 
were  necessary  to  bring  home  to  American 
readers  the  immediacy  of  the  subject,  some 
recent  statements  from  the  editorial  columns 
of  The  Far  Eastern  Review  would  seem  to  be 
suitable.  The  Caucasian  population  of  the  world 
is  doubling  its  numbers  once  in  a  hundred  years, 
states  the  editor;  the  dark-skinned  races,  which 
now  outnumber  the  white  population  two  to  one, 
are  doubling  their  numbers  every  twenty-five 
years — at  least  such  is  the  case  in  Korea  where 
the  most  recent  figures  are  available.  The  editor 
of  The  Far  Eastern  Review  figures  out  that  at 
the  present  rate  of  increase  the  Caucasian  ele- 
ment in  the  world's  population  will  have  shrunk 
in  a  hundred  years  to  scarcely  five  per  cent. 

The  Oriental  demands  male  children,  as  many 
of  them  as  he  can  produce.  The  editorial  goes 
on  to  state:  "So  long  as  the  Oriental  man  is 
able  to  arrogate  to  himself  the  right  to  possess 
plural  wives,  just  so  long  will  polygamy  prevail. 
But  there  is  a  way  out  and  one  which  is  becoming 
broader  and  more  easy  to  tread  each  year.  Easier 
for  the  new  woman  at  least,  for  marriages  among 
the  returned  girl  students  take  place  soon  after 
they  reach  China  again  and  scarcely  one  nuptial 
contract  is  drawn  between  two  foreign-educated 
Chinese  that  does  not  contain  an  agreement, 
either  in  black  and  white  or  tacit  at  least,  that 
this  wife  shall  be  the  only  wife  so  long  as  shi 
[178] 


ONE  CAN  BEAD  IN  THE  FACE 
OF  THIS  COTTON  OPERATIVE  IN 
SHANGHAI  THE  IMPENDING  TRAG- 
EDY WHERE  WESTERN  CIVILIZA- 
TION AS  REPRESENTED  BY  MODERN 
INDUSTRIALISM  IS  INTRODUCED  INTO 
THE  EAST.  THE  EXPLOITATION  OF 
WOMEN  AND  CHILDREN,  THE  GROWTH 
OF  CONGESTED  CITIES,  LONG  HOURS, 
UNSANITARY  CONDITIONS  OF  EM- 
PLOYMENT, AND  KINDRED  EVILS, 
ARE  CREATING  A  NEW  SET  OF  SO- 
CIAL AND  ECONOMIC  PROBLEMS 
WHICH  THE  EAST  IS  QUITE  UNPRE- 
PARED TO  SOLVE  WITHOUT  HELP, 


REMAKING  THE  SOCIAL  ORDER 

shall  live.  The  wife  with  foreign  education  is 
a  precious  thing  in  China  in  the  eyes  of  the 
returned  student,  since  she  is  one  of  a  few  women 
of  his  own  race  who  reaHze  and  understand 
his  peculiar  aspirations.  Rubies  are  as  nothing 
compared  to  her,  and  her  slightest  prenuptial 
wish  is  law.  She  has  it  in  her  hands  to  be  the 
one  and  only  wife  and  if  the  few  examples  that 
have  come  under  the  writer's  notice  are  any 
criterion,  she  will  exert  that  power  to  the  utmost." 

It  should  be  added  that,  while  the  influence 
of  the  returned  girl  students  is  undoubtedly 
being  exerted  to  that  end,  their  influence  is  small 
in  comparison  with  that  of  the  girl  graduates 
of  missionary  schools  within  the  country.  The 
number  of  returned  students  is,  as  yet,  relatively 
small,  while  the  missionary  girls'  schools  of 
secondary  and  college  grade,  alone,  have  an 
annual  enrolment  of  10,822  pupils. 

Another  phase  of  this  question  of  polygamy 
appears  from  an  interview  which  I  had  in  Peking 
with  Yung  Tao,  the  wealthy  Chinese  philan- 
thropist and  social  reformer.  I  called  on  him  on 
the  day  when  the  Chang  Hsun  revolution  was  just 
breaking  over  the  city.  "Just  look  at  China," 
he  exclaimed,  "see  all  these  troubles  she  is  in;  the 
future  is  very  dark.  Her  heart  is  spoiled — all  be- 
cause she  has  no  religion.  The  worst  trouble  in 
China  is  concubinage.  The  men  have  so  many 
wives  and  play  with  them  so  much  that  they 
must  all  'squeeze.'  Look  at  our  great  men  like 
Yuan  Shih  Kai  and  President  Li,  and  even  our 
[179] 


THE  DEMOCRATIC  MOVEMENT  IN  ASIA 

returned  students.  They  have  so  many  wives  all 
their  cleverness  is  gone.  They  cannot  think.  I 
have  watched  it  often  among  my  friends.  So 
long  as  they  are  contented  with  one  wife  they  do 
very  well.  When  they  acquire  concubines  they 
begin  to  weaken  and  become  flabby.  Many  na- 
tions want  China  to  be  good,  but  it  is  useless; 
there  are  so  many  bad  customs.  China's  great 
weakness  is  in  her  family  life." 

*T  am  so  proud  of  my  country,"  went  on 
Yung,  "its  ancient  history,  its  big,  good  land,  its 
milKons  of  people.  I  believe  the  common  folks 
are  as  good  as  .in  any  nation.  Only  the  upper 
classes  are  bad:  they  are  thieves  and  robbers. 
Men,  to  preserve  the  peace  of  their  own  house- 
holds, learn  to  speak  Kes  and  deceive.  They  do 
not  know  real  love." 

Yung  Tao  has  the  strength  of  his  convictions. 
In  addition  to  financing  many  private  philan- 
thropies, he  is  promoting  a  Social  Reform  Asso- 
ciation which  aheady  has  17,000  members.  When 
I  saw  him  he  was  drafting  a  bill  to  be  presented 
to  Parliament  to  forbid  the  continuance  of  the 
concubinage  system.  Some  years  ago  this  same 
gentleman,  when  not  a  Christian,  purchased  and 
distributed  several  thousand  copies  of  the  Bible 
in  a  specially  bound  form  to  his  friends. 

It  is  not  merely  China  which  suffers  from  the 
enervating  effects  of  polygamy.  It  is  the  com- 
mon practice,  in  one  form  or  another,  through- 
out the  Orient. 

When  I  went  to  Madam  Yajami  in  Tokyo  and 
[180] 


REMAKING  THE  SOCIAL  ORDER 

asked  her  what  she  considered  the  next  step  to 
be  taken  by  the  women  of  Japan,  she  repHed  m 
her  simple,  quaint  English,  "One  man,  one 
woman,  one  home."  As  President  of  the  Jap- 
anese Woman's  Christian  Temperance  Union  she 
is  actively  pushing  for  this  reform,  and  meeting 
with  no  little  success,  too.  Aided  by  some  other 
very  energetic  women  and  by  some  men,  under 
the  encouragement  of  the  missionaries,  she  has 
helped  to  create  a  substantial  new  sentiment 
against  the  yoshiwaras,  the  segregated  districts 
of  which  every  Japanese  city  was  formerly  more 
or  less  proud.  Until  recently  the  city  of  Osaka 
has  been  publishing  an  official  guide  map  of  the 
city  for  visitors  in  which  the  segregated  districts 
were  especially  designated  as  places  of  attraction. 
Now  Osaka  has  practically  abolished  her  yoshi- 
ivarasy  and  one  of  the  leading  newspapers  of  the 
city,  and  of  the  Empire  for  that  matter,  has 
opened  its  columns  to  a  series  of  articles  on 
social  purity  by  Colonel  Yamamura  of  the  Sal- 
vation Army. 

It  would  be  impossible  to  prove  the  statement 
that  the  most  heavily  capitalized  export  business 
in  Japan  is  the  exportation  of  girls  for  immoral 
purposes,  but  the  statement  has  been  made  with 
some  authority.  The  Japanese  prostitute  is 
sent  into  every  country  in  Asia  and  to  the  Islands 
of  the  Sea.  Dr.  George  E.  Morrison  of  Peking 
told  me  that  for  a  long  time  the  only  Japanese 
women  ever  seen  in  Australia  were  prostitutes. 
They  are  peddled  in  groups  of  three  and  four 
[181] 


THE  DEMOCRATIC  MOVEMENT  IN  ASIA 

with  a  male  manager  through  the  villages  of 
Mongolia;  one  finds  them  by  the  hundreds  in 
the  mining  towns  of  the  Malay  Peninsula.  They 
have  gone  even  to  India.  These  girls  are  moved 
about  with  obvious  business  direction  and  no 
small  amount  of  capital  must  be  involved  in 
the  business. 

Perhaps  the  women  of  the  West  could  make 
no  finer  contribution  to  the  women  of  Asia  than 
to  lend  the  force  of  their  organized  opposition 
to  this  business.  At  the  coming  peace  conference 
every  question  relating  to  the  welfare  of  the 
Orient  will  be  up  for  discussion.  Japan  is  pre- 
pared to  make  representations  that  she  be  per- 
mitted special  privileges  and  rights  of  leadership. 
She  is  also  very  sensitive  to  the  approval  of 
public  opinion  in  the  West.  It  might  be  quite 
possible  for  the  women  of  the  United  States  to 
join  with  the  women  of  Japan  in  demanding 
that  the  Empire  prohibit  a  practice  which  is 
doing  much  to  discredit  her  moral  influence  among 
the  races  of  Asia.  The  Japanese  Government  is 
already  beginning  to  feel  the  pressure  of  public 
opinion  on  the  subject  from  within  the  Empire. 

Some  years  ago  I  visited  the  hospital  of  Dr. 
Frank  Van  Allen  of  the  American  Board  in 
Madura,  South  India.  "What  are  the  chief 
diseases  which  you  have  to  fight.?"  I  asked. 
"Tuberculosis,  malaria,  and  venereal  disease." 
Any  mission  doctor  in  Asia  will  bear  out  the 
statement  that  the  blood  of  Asia  has  been  very 
badly  poisoned  with  venereal  taint.  Among  the 
[182] 


REMAKING  THE  SOCIAL  ORDER 

most  frequently  advertised  patent  medicines  on 
the  Oriental  bill-board  are  those  which  promise 
a  cm'e  for  syphilis. 

The  statement  is  sometimes  made  that  polyg- 
amy prevents  prostitution.  The  statement  is  not 
borne  out  by  the  facts.  Every  city  in  Asia  has 
its  segregated  districts.  One  has  but  to  glance 
at  the  reports  of  "The  Door  of  Hope"  of  Shanghai 
to  see  how  extensive  is  the  evil  in  China.  "The 
Door  of  Hope"  was  started  by  a  group  of  mis- 
sionary ladies  and  is  still  directed  by  them,  but 
now  receives  generous  subsidies  from  the  mu- 
nicipal government.  Little  girls  are  often  sold 
even  by  their  parents  into  slavery,  which  fre- 
quently leads  to  prostitution.  I  have  a  picture 
of  one  girl  who  was  sold  for  $500,  although  the 
price  is  usually  much  less  than  that. 

Strangely  enough,  the  "Door  of  Hope"  girls, 
after  they  have  been  in  the  institution  a  year 
or  more,  are  largely  in  demand  as  Chinese  preach- 
ers' wives.  There  is  little  stigma  attached  to 
their  previous  occupation  in  the  eyes  of  the 
Chinese,  for  most  of  the  girls  were  first  placed 
in  houses  of  ill  fame  without  their  consent.  While 
there  they  receive  special  training  in  the  social 
graces  and  become  far  more  accomplished,  so- 
cially, than  is  the  average  Chinese  girl.  Hardly 
a  week  goes  by  but  that  some  young  Chinese 
preacher  comes  to  "The  Door  of  Hope,"  by  pre- 
arrangement  with  the  matron,  and  takes  away 
a  bride  for  the  most  exacting  duties  of  a  min- 
ister's wife. 

[183] 


THE  DEMOCRATIC  MOVEMENT  IN  ASIA 

The  relation  between  this  movement  against 
prostitution  and  polygamy  in  the  Orient  and 
Christianity  is  obvious.  The  missionary  not 
merely  establishes  the  rescue  home,  but  also 
imparts  a  new  set  of  ideals  for  family  life  and  for 
the  treatment  of  women.  Meanwhile  the  women 
themselves  are  beginning  to  rise  and  assert  their 
rights.  The  missionary  is  not  always  the  leader. 
Often  the  missions  exercise  a  conservative  in- 
fluence which  is  very  much  needed  at  present. 
The  currents  of  social  reform  more  and  more 
reach  down  to  the  family  life  and  their  initial 
influence  is  often  destructive.  Before  a  new 
code  of  conduct  and  etiquette  can  be  created, 
the  old  code  has  disappeared,  and  the  girls, 
thrust  out  of  their  homes  into  school,  shop,  or 
mill,  will  have  no  established  social  order  on  which 
to  lean.  The  steadying  influence  of  the  mission- 
aries is  important,  not  merely  in  reforms  relating  to 
women,  but  in  all  of  the  social  reform  movements. 

There  is  a  tremendous  capacity  for  radical 
thought  and  action  being  created  through  the 
missions.  Every  convert  to  Christianity  must, 
of  necessity,  be  a  radical.  He  has  to  repudiate 
almost  an  entire  social  order  before  he  can  be 
baptized.  Were  the  missionary  unable  to  exer- 
cise also  a  conservative  influence  over  the  new 
lives  of  his  converts,  the  results  might  often  be 
alarming.  As  it  is,  there  is  being  steadily  created 
an  increasing  number  of  people  in  every  race 
in  Asia  whose  faces  are  resolutely  set  toward 
social  reform. 

[184] 


REMAKING  THE  SOCIAL  ORDER 

When  one  finishes  a  study  of  these  social  re- 
form movements,  he  sees  as  never  before  how 
utterly  statistics  fail  to  convey  adequate  notions 
of  the  extent  of  missionary  achievement  in  the 
Orient.  In  the  new  social  order  one  everywhere 
sees  a  process  of  restratification  in  which  each 
nation  is  being  divided  into  two  sections,  the  one 
English-speaking  and  the  other  non-English- 
speaking.  The  people  who  speak  English  are  the 
leaders  of  public  opinion.  These  leaders,  almost 
without  exception,  although  they  are  not  Chris- 
tians in  any  theological  or  ecclesiastical  sense, 
and  perhaps  never  will  be,  have  already  adopted 
heartily  as  their  ideal  a  Christianized  social  order. 


[185] 


NATIONALISM  AND  CHURCH  UNITY 
IN  ASIA 


CHAPTER  IX 

NATIONALISM  AND  CHURCH  UNITY 
IN  ASIA 

One  of  the  marked  expressions  of  the  grow- 
ing national  and  racial  self-consciousness  of 
Asia  is  the  development  of  independent  Chris- 
tian churches. 

The  Christian  communities  respond  more 
quickly  to  the  fresh  intellectual  and  spiritual 
breezes  now  blowing  across  the  ancient  East 
because  Christian  converts  are  more  literate,  and 
the  most  stirring  appeal  now  being  made  to  the 
peoples  of  the  Orient  is  that  of  nationalism. 
Furthermore,  in  the  mission  school  and  in  their 
experiments  with  ecclesiastical  organization  the 
Christians  acquire  self-confidence.  Have  they 
not  already  broken  with  their  racial  past,  re- 
pudiating the  traditions  of  their  elders?  What 
could  be  more  natural  than  that  they  should  also 
become  impatient  to  declare  their  entire  independ- 
ence in  church  as  well  as  in  state?  The  Christian 
missions  of  Asia  are  cradles  of  patriotism. 

There  is  little  basis  for  the  fear  that  the  mis- 
sions are  creating  groups  of  permanently  de- 
pendent and  non-self-supporting  churches.  In- 
deed, the  missionary  will  usually  tell  one  that 
one  of  his  most  difficult  problems  is  to  restrain, 
without  discouraging,  his  people  in  their  desires 
[189] 


THE  DEMOCRATIC  MOVEMENT  IN  ASIA 

to  accept  greater  responsibilities  than  they  are 
able  to  discharge  creditably.  On  the  other  hand, 
the  native  Christians  often  complain  with  even  a 
trace  of  bitterness  of  the  paternalism  of  the  mis- 
sionary. Today  nationalism  and  ecclesiastical  inde- 
pendence are  traveling  hand  in  hand  in  the  Orient. 

When  the  Filipinos  became  separated  from 
Spain,  the  Independent  Filipino  Catholic  Church 
came  into  being  under  the  leadership  of  Arch- 
bishop Aglipay.  Although  this  church  has  now 
largely  lost  its  vitality,  its  history  illustrates  a 
spirit  which  is  more  or  less  characteristic  of  the 
entire  East. 

It  will  be  recalled  that  the  American  occupa- 
tion of  the  Philippines  came  at  a  time  of  internal 
revolution.  For  more  than  two  years  the  Filipinos 
had  been  in  rebellion  against  Spain.  This  move- 
ment had  been  religious  as  well  as  economic 
and  political.  The  Filipinos  felt  that  the  Spanish 
friars  had  taken  sides  against  the  people  and 
had  become  oppressors  rather  than  spiritual 
guides.  Aglipay  had  been  trained  for  the  priest- 
hood and  had  held  several  important  positions 
in  the  Roman  Catholic  Church  before  the  revolu- 
tion came.  Eventually  he  cast  in  his  lot  with 
the  rebels  and  after  the  American  occupation 
joined  the  insurrectos.  He  gathered  two  score 
or  more  of  spirits  as  untamed  as  himself,  and 
became  a  very  effectual  thorn  in  the  side  of  the^ 
Government  for  months.  His  band  of  outlaw 
led  the  United  States  troops  many  an  exciting 
chase  into  the  hills  before  it  was  scattered. 
[190] 


ARCHBISHOP  AGLIPAY,  OF  THE 
INDEPENDENT  FILIPINO  CATHOLIC 
CHURCH,  WAS  FORMERLY  AN  OFFI- 
CER IN  THE  INSURRECTO  ARMY 
AND  GAVE  THE  AMERICAN  TROOPS 
A  GREAT  DEAL  OF  TROUBLE. 
LATER  HIS  PATRIOTIC  IMPULSES 
WERE  DIVERTED  TO  THE  LEADER- 
SHIP OF  A  FILIPINO  CHURCH  EX- 
CLUSIVELY UNDER  NATIVE  CONTROL. 


NATIONALISM  AND  CHURCH  UNITY 

The  insurrection  having  been  abandoned,  Agli- 
pay  joined  hands  with  a  most  enterprising  press 
agent  by  the  name  of  Prousch  and  lifted  the 
standard  of  rebeUion  against  the  friars.  Prousch 
had  drifted  into  the  Islands  by  way  of  India, 
where  he  had  developed  a  most  uncompromising 
antipathy  to  the  Roman  Catholic  Church,  dab- 
bled in  missionary  work,  and  polished  off  an 
amazing  vocabulary  of  American  slang.  Prousch 
backed  Aglipay  to  be  a  second  Martin  Luther 
and  placed  his  diversified  talents  entirely  at  the 
insurrecto-priest's  disposal.  As  press  agent  (I 
have  the  story  from  his  own  lips)  he  made  a  tour 
of  the  provincial  towns,  telling  of  the  exploits 
of  his  patron,  and  securing  permission  from  the 
authorities  for  Aglipay  to  come  and  celebrate 
mass  in  the  plaza  on  some  Sunday  morning. 
Then  he  went  back  to  Manila,  placed  a  miter  on 
the  head  of  Aglipay,  pronounced  him  Archbishop 
of  the  Independent  Catholic  Church,  and  led 
him  forth  to  fill  the  engagements. 

The  Filipinos  flocked  to  the  new  leader  in 
great  numbers.  There  were  sometimes  as  many 
as  10,000  people  at  these  open-air  masses.  The 
archbishop  proclaimed  a  reformation  and  fol- 
lowed up  his  promises  by  writing  a  new  creed, 
in  which  Unitarianism  ran  rampant,  and  by  de- 
vising a  ritual  in  which  most  of  the  forms  familiar 
to  the  Filipinos  were  retained.  It  was  the  spirit 
of  nationalism  and  independence  which  gave  the 
new  institution  its  wings. 

The  movement  began  to  number  its  adherents 

[191  ] 


THE  DEMOCRATIC  MOVEMENT  IN  ASIA 

by  the  hundreds  of  thousands  and  at  one  time 
claimed  between  four  and  five  million  people. 
Then  came  a  series  of  reverses.  It  was  impossible 
to  find  adequately  trained  priests  to  shepherd 
the  new  parishes.  The  courts  decided  that 
dissenting  congregations  could  not  hold  titles  to 
the  old  church  properties.  The  new  archbishop 
did  not  develop  the  qualities  of  leadership  which 
his  press  agent  had  hoped  to  find.  The  Roman 
Catholic  Church,  freed  from  a  measure  of  Spanish 
influence  and  placed  under  American  leadership, 
made  many  concessions  and  in  time  the  Inde- 
pendent Filipino  Catholic  Church,  which  had 
always  been  less  a  church  than  a  movement, 
collapsed,  although  the  venerable  archbishop  still 
boasts  of  its  extent  and  influence.  The  signifi- 
cance of  the  adventure  lay  in  the  fact  that  it 
was,  and  still  is,  an  expression  of  national  self- 
consciousness.  It  illustrates  at  once  both  the 
ease  with  which  Oriental  peoples  may  be 
stampeded  by  an  appeal  to  freedom  and  also 
the  peculiar  difficulties  of  the  missionary,  as  he 
continually  nourishes  among  his  followers  a 
patriotic  sense  which  may  easily  get  out  of  hand 
and  be  turned  into  abortive  action. 

Independent  Protestant  churches  in  Asia  have 
usually  met  with  greater  success  than  the  Aglipay 
movement  in  the  Philippines.  Indeed,  the  funda- 
mental purpose  of  Protestant  missionary  work  is 
the  creation  of  self-supporting,  self-propagating, 
self-governing  churches.  Already,  after  less  than 
half  a  century  of  missionary  work  in  Japan, 
[192] 


NATIONALISM  AND  CHURCH  UNITY 

there  are  several  independent  Japanese  denom- 
inations. One  will  look  in  vain  in  the  Japanese 
church  directory  for  the  names  Presbyterian  and 
Congregational.  Many  years  ago  the  Congre- 
gational Christians  of  the  Empire  were  organized 
into  what  are  known  as  the  Kumaii  churches 
and  went  on  their  way  with  the  blessing  of  the 
missionaries.  Many  thought  at  the  time  that 
these  converts  were  departing  from  the  fold  too 
soon  and  later  developments  appear  to  have 
justified  that  conviction,  but  nevertheless  the 
Kumaii  churches  are  now  well  on  their  feet  and 
prospering.  Similarly  the  Presbyterian  and  the 
Methodist  converts  have  formed  themselves  into 
denominations  and  maintain  their  own  com- 
pletely independent  institutions. 

One  remarkable  feature  of  the  independent 
national  churches  is  that  they  often  represent 
not  merely  independence  but  inter-church  union 
as  well.  The  Church  of  Christ  in  Japan  is  com- 
posed of  the  members  from  the  American,  the 
Canadian,  and  the  Australian  Presbyterian  mis- 
sions. There  is  a  Presbyterian  Church  similarly 
formed  in  Korea.  The  Methodist  Church  of 
Japan,  which  has  its  own  bishop,  creed,  and 
ritual,  was  made  up  from  the  missions  of  the 
Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  the  Methodist  Epis- 
copal Church,  South,  and  the  Canadian  Method- 
ist Church.  In  each  case  where  a  national  church 
has  been  formed,  the  original  missions  out  of 
which  the  church  came  still  continue  their  work; 
the  new  churches  are  by  no  means  yet  able  to 
[193] 


THE  DEMOCRATIC  MOVEMENT  IN  ASIA 

undertake  the  support  of  all  necessary  missionary 
work.  For  example,  it  is  estimated  that  only 
twenty  per  cent  of  the  population  of  Japan  has 
yet  been  offered  the  Christian  faith  in  any  effec- 
tive effort.  The  mission  boards  even  arranged  to 
give  these  independent  churches  a  fixed  amount 
of  financial  assistance  on  a  scale  which  decreases 
year  by  year. 

The  United  Church  of  South  India  is  the  most 
recent  independent  church  to  be  thus  formed. 
This  was  organized  from  the  converts  of  Con- 
gregational, Presbyterian,  and  Dutch  Reformed 
missions  and  is,  therefore,  unique  in  having 
made  a  combination  which  would  be  altogether 
impossible  even  in  the  enlightened  United  States. 

Within  a  few  months  a  still  more  extensive 
movement  toward  church  union  has  been  in- 
augurated in  China.  All  its  Presbyterian  churches 
have  been  joined  in  a  Federal  Council  of  Pres- 
byterian churches  for  all  China,  in  which  Presby- 
terian North,  Presbyterian  South,  Dutch  Re- 
formed, and  German  Reformed,  from  the  United 
States;  English,  two  Scotch,  and  Irish  Presby- 
terian from  Great  Britain;  Canadian  Presbyterian, 
and  New  Zealand,  are  represented.  At  the  same 
time  many  leading  American  and  English  Con- 
gregationalists  have  expressed  a  desire  to  join 
forces  with  these  Presbyterians  in  a  Federal 
Council  of  Churches  for  China,  which  in  the 
minds  of  the  Chinese  will  not  be  very  sharply 
distinguished  from  complete  church  union. 

When  one  remembers  that  in  our  own  country 
[194] 


NATIONALISM  AND  CHURCH  UNITY 

there  are  no  less  than  twelve  kinds  of  Presby- 
terians and  sixteen  kinds  of  Methodists,  not  to 
mention  other  illustrations  of  a  similar  diversity 
of  ecclesiastical  opinion,  he  realizes  to  what 
an  extent  the  leadership  in  church  union  has 
already  passed  to  the  mission  field.  While  the 
churches  in  the  United  States  are  talking  about 
church  union,  the  mission  churches,  under  the 
spur  of  patriotism,  are  accomplishing  it. 

Notwithstanding  the  one  remarkable  national 
church  of  South  India,  it  must  be  noted  that 
both  church  union  and  missionary  cooperation 
in  India  lag  behind  the  pace  set  elsewhere  in 
Asia.  Generally  speaking,  Indian  missionary 
work  is  older  and,  for  that  reason  among  others, 
more  bound  by  tradition  than  is  the  work  in 
China  or  Japan.  It  must  be  admitted  that  the 
older  type  of  missionary  work  did  not  look 
toward  church  union,  and  often  not  even  toward 
cooperation.  On  the  other  hand,  the  rise  of 
nationalism  is  already  exercising  an  influence  on 
the  Indian  Christians  which  is  bound  to  have 
a  wholesome  effect.  Home  Rule  aspirations 
are  as  rife  in  rehgious  as  in  political  circles. 
Ecclesiastical  independence  always  looks  toward 
consolidation  and  church  union,  just  as  it  did 
when  the  South  India  United  Church  was  formed. 
Many  English  missionaries  have  confessed  to  me 
that  they  are  having  difficulty  in  keeping 
their  converts  impressed  with  the  necessities 
of  their  own  peculiar  creed.  American  mission- 
aries, though  not  regretting  them,  have  told 
[195] 


THE  DEMOCRATIC  MOVEMENT  IN  ASIA 

me  of  similar  diflSculties.  The  next  decade  will 
doubtless  record  a  great  advance  for  the  Indian 
Christians  along  the  line  of  independence.  Al- 
ready the  Anghcan  Church  has  elected  Azariah, 
born  an  outcaste,  to  the  high  office  of  bishop. 

The  one  charge  most  frequently  brought  by 
the  Indian  critic  of  the  missions  is  that  the 
missionary  has  so  placed  himself  in  partnership 
with  the  Government  that  he  is  unable  to  be  an 
impartial  friend  of  the  native  in  his  struggles 
for  Home  Rule.  There  is  at  least  a  slight  basis 
for  the  charge.  Practically  all  missions,  if  they 
can  get  it,  accept  grant-in-aid  funds  from  the 
Government  for  educational  work.  I  have  heard 
Indians  argue  that  this  system  makes  of  the 
missionary  practically  a  government  servant.  It 
certainly  does  impose  obligations  which  may 
appear  to  range  the  missionary  on  the  side  of 
the  Government.  For  example,  the  missionary 
teacher  is  expected  by  the  police  to  see  that 
his  pupils  do  not  have  in  their  possession  litera- 
ture which  has  been  placed  on  the  government 
index.  The  teacher  may  be  quite  in  accord  with 
the  Government  as  to  the  unwisdom  of  per- 
mitting certain  literature  to  circulate  among 
immature  students,  but  it  is  unfortunate  that 
the  missionary  schools  have  been  so  related  to 
the  Government  that  when  the  teacher  approaches 
the  students  on  the  subject  of  seditious  literature 
he  appears  less  as  a  friend  than  as  a  Government 
employe.  A  complete  separation  of  church  an 
state  in  India  would  mean  the  withdrawal  o: 
[196] 


It 

1 


NATIONALISM  AND  CHURCH  UNITY 

hundreds  of  thousands  of  dollars  from  the  support 
of  missionary  schools.  No  mission  board  is  now 
prepared  to  make  proportionate  increases  in  appro- 
priations, but  the  losses  resulting  from  complete 
separation  of  the  missionaries  from  the  Govern- 
ment would  have  their  compensations. 

There  is  now  a  movement  of  growing  propor- 
tions which  demands  that  the  study  of  the  Bible 
and  attendance  upon  chapel  exercises  shall  be 
voluntary  in  all  mission  schools  which  receive 
government  aid.  If  this  agitation  ever  achieves 
its  object,  many  of  the  missions  will  doubtless 
return  to  their  old  status  as  they  were  before 
the  grant-in-aid  system  was  offered.  In  other 
words,  the  missions  will  go  on  to  a  basis  similar 
to  that  in  China,  Japan,  and  the  Philippines, 
where  the  governments  offer  no  direct  assistance 
except  the  maintenance  of  religious  liberty. 
Meanwhile,  the  Indian  missions  unfortunately  are 
not  in  a  position  to  maintain  a  strict  neutrality 
between  the  Government  and  the  people  in  the 
Home  Rule  strife.  This  existing  condition  is 
grist  for  the  mill  of  the  Indian  Christian  who 
is  not  at  all  contented  to  belong  to  a  foreign- 
ruled  church. 

Another  influence  which  is  tending  to  bring 
the  Indian  converts  together  is  the  fear,  which 
is  more  or  less  general,  that  the  Christianizing 
of  a  convert  is  equivalent  to  denationalizing  him. 
It  has  often  been  the  custom  in  missions  when 
a  new  convert  is  baptized  to  give  him  a  new  name. 
This  has  frequently  been  really  necessary  in  view 
[197] 


THE  DEMOCRATIC  MOVEMENT  IN  ASIA 

of  the  fact  that  many  Oriental  names  verge  on 
the  obscene.  In  such  cases  it  is  customary  to 
name  the  convert  after  some  substantial  Biblical 
character,  the  result  being  that  the  convert  loses 
whatever  national  or  racial  character  a  name 
may  ordinarily  give.  Orphans  have  often  been 
named  after  donors  who  have  agreed  to  support 
them  in  mission  orphanages.  Critics  of  the  mis- 
sionary work  look  upon  such  a  policy  with  great 
disfavor.  Any  missionary  policy  of  the  future 
which  does  not  tend  to  make  the  convert  a  more 
ardent  and  stable  patriot  will  be  working  against 
the  tide. 

In  Japan  and  in  China  the  old  national  re- 
ligions have  been  closely  identified  with  patriot- 
ism. The  establishment  of  national  Christian 
churches  in  Japan  has  done  much  to  free  the 
Christians  in  that  country  from  the  suspicion 
of  lack  of  patriotism.  China  also  is  now  realizing 
that  its  people  do  not  become  any  less  patriotic 
by  being  baptized.  When  Admiral  Li  Ho  be- 
came Vice-Minister  of  the  Chinese  Navy  under 
Yuan  Shih  Kai,  the  latter  ordered  him  to  go  to 
the  temple  of  the  War-god  and  swear  allegiance 
to  his  new  chief.  The  admiral,  being  a  Christian 
and  yet  fully  measuring  the  consequences  of 
insubordination,  refused  to  obey  on  the  grounds 
of  religious  scruples.  For  a  little  while  it  looked 
as  though  the  admiral  might  lose  not  only  his 
new  post,  but  also  his  head.  General  Li  Yuan 
Hung  became  the  mediator,  and  the  affair  was 
settled  in  a  manner  which  established  a  precedent  _ 
[198]  I 


THIS  BUDDHIST  MONK  OF  PEKING 
18  ILLUSTRATIVE  OF  THE  QUALITY 
OF  THE  CHINESE  SPIRITUAL  LEADER- 
SHIP WHICH  HAS  BEEN  PRODUCED 
UNDER  THE  DECADENT  RELIGIOUS 
LIFE  OF  THE  NATION.  THERE  18 
NO  MORE  HOPE  FOR  CHINA  IN  SUCH 
MEN  AS  THESE  THAN  IN  THE  IRRE- 
SPONSIBLE MILITARY  LEADERS  WHO 
ARE  NOW  IN  POWER. 


'-    o    c"    ♦■   '  fc  '- 


i 


NATIONALISM  AND  CHURCH  UNITY 

that  a  Christian  may  take  his  oath  of  allegiance 
in  a  Christian  manner. 

The  new  spirit  of  nationalism  is  only  one  of 
several  forces  which  are  operating  to  promote 
Christian  unity  in  the  Orient.  As  has  already 
been  suggested,  the  missionary  himself  is  often 
one  of  the  most  active  factors.  Sometimes  his 
fear  that  the  converts  are  ill  prepared  for  greater 
responsibilities  puts  him  in  the  awkward  position 
of  appearing  to  oppose  a  movement  which  is 
nationalistic  in  its  aspiration.  The  Oriental  is 
inclined  even  more  perhaps  than  the  Occidental 
to  draw  the  color  line.  He  is,  therefore,  very 
quick  to  detect  whatever  may  appear  as  a  dis- 
crimination against  him  or  an  understatement  of 
his  ability.  The  missionary  lives  in  very  intimate 
relations  with  the  native.  He  sees  him  at  his 
worst  as  well  as  at  his  best.  Sometimes  his  affec- 
tion for  his  converts  undoubtedly  leads  him  to 
an  exaggerated  estimate  of  their  ability.  I  be- 
lieve it  is  not  unfair  to  say  that  the  Chinese 
conditions  of  the  last  decade  have  been  too 
favorably  presented  to  the  Western  public.  We 
have  sometimes  been  led  thereby  to  expect  too 
much  from  China  in  ability  to  manage  her  diffi- 
cult affairs.  On  the  other  hand,  it  is  not  at  all 
unlikely  that  the  missionary  is  sometimes  too 
close  to  the  racial  defects  of  his  charges  to  ap- 
praise fully  their  better  qualities.  However,  it 
is  plain  that  a  people  is  hardly  better  able  to 
support  self-government  in  the  church  than  it 
is  to  support  it  in  the  state.  Only  the  Japanese 
[199] 


THE  DEMOCRATIC  MOVEMENT  IN  ASIA 

have  yet  demonstrated  that  they  can  do  the 
latter.  There  appears  to  be  very  little  founda- 
tion for  the  charge  that  the  missionary  adopts 
too  paternalistic  an  attitude  toward  his  converts 
and  that  he  fails  to  realize  and  utilize  whatever 
degree  of  ability  they  may  have  in  self-government. 

Although  the  convert  himself  is  usually  very 
loyal  to  his  new  faith,  often  proving  this  by  great 
sacrifice  and  severe  suffering,  one  will  find  very 
little  sectarian  loyalty  in  the  Orient.  Western 
denominational  traditions  do  not  hold  him.  A 
Chinese  clergyman  is  reported  to  have  risen  in 
a  recent  union  meeting  of  the  churches  in  Nanking 
and  said,  pointing  in  turn  to  several  of  the  mis- 
sionaries, "You  are  an  American  Presbyterian: 
you  can't  help  it,  for  you  were  brought  up  that 
way.  You  are  a  Canadian  Methodist,  and  you 
can't  help  it  either,  for  a  similar  reason.  You 
are  an  Anglican  Churchman,  and  we  can't  blame 
you  for  that.  But  we  are  Chinese  Christians 
and  we  do  not  propose  that  you  men  from  abroad 
shall  keep  us  apart."  The  defiance  was  more 
playful  than  real  earnest,  for  there  was  probably 
no  desire  whatever  on  the  part  of  the  mission- 
aries assembled  to  propagate  among  the  Chinese 
the  denominational  divisions  which  prove  so 
damaging  at  home. 

China  is  preeminent  in  the  extent  to  which 
the  spirit  of  church  union  and  inter-church  co- 
operation has  been  carried.  This  is  due,  one 
may  state  it  humbly,  in  large  measure  to  the 
fact  that  in  China  the  missionary  leadership  is 
[  WO  ] 


NATIONALISM  AND  CHURCH  UNITY 

most  frequently  in  the  hands  of  Americans.  New 
methods  of  work  are  also  easier  in  China  because 
the  work  itself  is  often  newer  than  elsewhere. 
Some  of  the  more  recently  established  mission 
stations  have  been  definitely  planned  with  a 
view  to  fostering  a  spirit  of  church  union  and 
independence.  I  have  sometimes  so  shown  my 
amazement  at  the  spirit  of  the  missionaries,  in 
contrast  to  the  apathetic  attitude  of  the  denom- 
inations in  the  West  towards  church  union,  as 
to  draw  forth  this  statement:  "Out  here  we  are 
moving  toward  church  unity  just  as  rapidly  as 
our  denominations  at  home  will  permit  us  to 
move." 

While  the  non-Christian  world  has  yet  to  see 
such  a  demonstration  of  Christian  unity  as  there 
would  be  if  the  various  missionary  boards  would 
agree  to  organize  a  definitely  interdenominational 
mission  to  be  jointly  supported  among  them,  the 
number  of  union  educational,  medical,  and  ad- 
ministrative institutions  already  established  is 
truly  amazing.  The  new  missionary  arriving  in 
China,  for  example,  goes  first  to  a  Union  Lan- 
guage School  which  is  supported  by  a  group  of 
missions.  There  he  not  only  learns  the  language 
according  to  the  most  approved  linguistic  methods 
under  competent  teachers,  but  he  also  learns  to 
know  the  other  missionaries  who  later  on  will 
labor  in  neighboring  fields  for  other  denomina- 
tions. His  first  contacts  with  the  missionary 
problem  are  therefore  those  in  which  sectarianism 
has  little  part. 

[  ^01  ] 


THE  DEMOCRATIC  MOVEMENT  IN  ASIA 

As  the  children  of  the  native  Christians  pass 
on  up  from  the  lower  schools  they  enter  union 
universities.  They  prepare  for  their  professions 
frequently  in  union  medical  schools  and  union 
theological  seminaries.  The  converts  of  widely 
differing  denominations  meet  together  in  the 
classroom  and  on  the  athletic  field.  When  the 
provincial  governor  comes  to  visit  the  West  China 
Union  University,  the  students  turn  out  with  an 
American  brass  band  and  march  past  him  sing- 
ing with  a  zeal  which  is  Methodist,  Baptist,  or 
Quaker,  "The  bull-dog  on  the  bank  and  the  bull- 
frog in  the  pool."  In  China  and  Korea  together 
there  are  no  less  than  fifty -four  union  educational 
institutions,  of  which  nine  are  medical  schools, 
ten  are  colleges,  and  fifteen  are  theological  sem- 
inaries. There  are  thirty-eight  different  societies 
cooperating  in  one  or  more  of  these  schools, 
twenty-two  of  the  denominations  being  Amer- 
ican. 

The  present  tendency  throughout  the  mission 
fields  is  to  perfect  comity  agreements,  according 
to  which  the  various  missions  operating  in  a 
single  area  agree  to  definite  assignments  of  terri- 
tory to  prevent  overlapping  and  competition.  The 
public  opinion  on  this  subject  is  now  so  well 
formed  that  few  missions  dare  to  disregard  these 
agreements.  The  mission  fields  are  all  far  in 
advance  of  the  churches  at  home  in  this  regard. 
In  marked  contrast  to  religious  conditions  in  the 
United  States,  one  cannot  point  to  a  single  foreign 
missionary  area  which,  with  reference  to  the  size 
[202] 


1 

1                    1 
■J 

■ 

THE  INTRODUCTION  OP  SCIEN- 
TIFIC EDUCATION  INTO  INDIA  HAS 
RESULTED  IN  A  NEW  TYPE  OF  GRAD- 
UATE, WHO  IS  PREPARED  TO  LEAD 
HIS  PEOPLE  IN  A  MORE  EFFECTIVE 
DEVELOPMENT  OF  THEIR  IMMENSE 
NATIONAL  RESOURCES. 


t         ■  <  c 


°   *■    r  t.  »■!'  ; 


i 


NATIONALISM  AND  CHURCH  UNITY 

of  the  population,  can  be  said  to  be  "over- 
churched." 

Aside  from  the  spirit  of  the  missionaries  them- 
selves, the  definite  union  undertakings,  and  the 
comity  agreements,  the  other  great  forces  work- 
ing for  Christian  unity  within  the  missionary 
circle  are  the  Young  Men's  Christian  Association, 
the  Young  Women's  Christian  Association,  the 
Bible  and  Christian  Literature  Societies,  and  the 
various  Continuation  Committees  of  the  Edin- 
burgh Conference  of  1910. 

The  Young  Men's  Christian  Association  goes 
into  a  city  at  the  invitation  of  the  missionaries, 
gathers  up  the  leading  laymen  from  all  the  mis- 
sions, brings  them  together  around  a  table,  gives 
them  large  responsibilities,  and  thus  welds  the 
Christian  forces  into  a  substantial  unity.  Its 
building  provides  an  assembly  room  for  union 
Christian  meetings,  and  its  secretaries,  by  virtue 
of  the  fact  of  their  sectarian  neutrality,  become 
convenient  leaders  for  union  movements.  The 
Young  Women's  Christian  Association,  while  by 
no  means  as  extensively  or  adequately  repre- 
sented as  its  older  brother,  performs  a  similar 
service  in  its  own  way. 

The  great  harmonizing  and  unifymg  power  of 
the  Edinburgh  Conference  in  1910,  bringing  to- 
gether as  it  did  representatives  not  only  from 
all  the  mission  fields  but  from  all  the  different 
denominations,  has  not  been  dissipated.  Each 
missionary  area  like  China,  India,  and  Japan 
has  its  Continuation  Committee,  its  offices,  and 
[203] 


THE  DEMOCRATIC  MOVEMENT  IN  ASIA 

executive  secretaries.  There  is  nothing  compulsory 
about  the  decisions  of  these  committees,  but  by 
means  of  wise  leadership  and  great  tact  their 
decisions  are  coming  to  have  the  force  of  law. 
These  offices  are  also  of  inestimable  value  in 
promoting  the  adoption  of  new  methods  of  work. 

No  treatment  of  the  union  movement  in  Asia 
is  complete  without  reference  to  some  of  the  new 
non-sectarian  institutions  such  as  Yale  in  China 
at  Changsha,  the  Harvard  Medical  School  at 
Shanghai,  and  the  Canton  Christian  College.  The 
two  former  institutions  are,  as  their  names  imply, 
missionary  enterprises  undertaken  by  universities 
and  quite  separated  from  any  sectarian  control. 
The  college  at  Canton,  which  is  sometimes  known 
among  the  Chinese  as  "The  Man  Factory," 
works  in  hearty  cooperation  with  all  the  missions 
centering  in  Canton,  and  yet  is  governed  by  a 
board  of  trustees  quite  independent  of  the  mission 
boards.  Pennsylvania  State  College,  Teachers' 
College  (Columbia),  University  of  Pennsylvania, 
University  of  Pittsburg,  and  Vassar,  through 
their  student  associations,  are  carrying  the  ex- 
penses of  members  of  the  faculty,  and  the  London 
Missionary  Society  is  contributing  one  missionary. 

The  Yale  Mission  in  Changsha  was  the  out- 
growth of  a  movement  among  the  Student  Volun- 
teers of  Yale,  especially  those  of  the  class  of  1898. 
Through  both  the  educational  work  and  the  hos- 
pital an  unmistakable  "Yale  spirit"  has  been 
carried  through  the  entire  province  of  Hunan. 
It  is  difficult  to  estimate  too  highly  the  im- 
[^04] 


p 


NATIONALISM  AND  CHURCH  UNITY 


portance  of  this  enterprise,  which  has  long  since 
ceased  to  be  an  experiment.  Under  an  agree- 
ment with  the  Hunan  Educational  Association,  a 
board  of  ten  Chinese  and  ten  American  members 
join  in  the  general  direction  of  the  work.  This 
agreement,  which  is  sanctioned  by  the  Peking 
Government,  provides  that  the  school  and  hos- 
pital shall  receive  annual  appropriations  of  govern- 
ment funds  up  to  $50,000,  Mex.  Such  an  arrange- 
ment is  unprecedented  in  China,  and  would  be 
quite  impossible  were  the  enterprise  under  sec- 
tarian control.  The  founding  and  development 
of  "Ya-li"  has  been  surrounded  by  romantic, 
pathetic,  and  picturesque  incidents  which  give  the 
work  unique  traditions  and  personality. 

Another  notable  union  school  recently  started 
at  Nanking  is  Ginling  College  for  Girls.  Mrs. 
Thiu-ston,  widow  of  J.  Lawrence  Thurston,  who 
went  to  China  to  found  the  Yale  Mission  at 
Changsha,  but  whose  health  failed  him  before  the 
purpose  could  be  accomplished,  is  the  first  pres- 
ident of  Ginling.  While  this'  new  college^is  more 
closely  related  to  the  denominational  mission 
boards  than  is  "Ya-li,"  it  is  pioneering  in  a  new 
field  and  setting  standards  of  academic  work 
for  girls  which  are  unique  yet  greatly  needed 
in  China. 

The  great  barrier  to  church  union  in  Asia  is 
the  fact  that  as  yet  the  native  churches  are 
usually  quite  unable  to  become  self-supporting. 
While  one  is  amazed  that  the  mission  fields  have 
already  developed  so  far  toward  self-support,  it 
[^05] 


THE  DEMOCRATIC  MOVEMENT  IN  ASIA 

must  be  recognized  that  so  long  as  a  mission 
church  requires  financial  assistance  it  must  assent 
to  a  proportionate  amount  of  supervision  from  the 
missionaries  and  that  means  that  any  given 
church  must  remain  a  denominational  church  of 
some  sort.  Unless  present  indications  are  mis- 
leading, when  the  churches  in  Asia  have  fully 
reached  the  goal  of  self-support  they  will  quietly 
set  themselves  free  from  the  sectarian  spirit  of 
the  West  and  take  the  matter  of  church  unity 
into  their  own  hands.  There  may  then  still  re- 
main divisions  in  the  Christian  forces,  but  instead 
of  being  such  as  have  been  passed  on  from  Occi- 
dental church  history  they  will  be  such  as  different 
Oriental  temperaments  by  nature  require. 

Meanwhile,  probably  the  most  effective  force 
now  operating  to  bring  together  the  divided 
churches  of  the  West  is  the  growing  demand  for 
Christian  unity  in  the  East. 


[206] 


THE  BUSINESS  SIDE  OF  FOREIGN 
MISSIONS 


CHAPTER  X 

THE  BUSINESS  SIDE  OF  FOREIGN 
MISSIONS 

According  to  the  best  available  figures,  a  little 
less  than  $40,000,000  is  being  spent  annually  in 
the  propagation  of  Protestant  Christianity  in  non- 
Christian  lands  and  among  the  backward  races. 

The  total  revenues  of  all  the  missionary  so- 
cieties and  boards  of  the  United  States  and 
Canada  have  been  increased  at  the  rate  of  more 
than  a  million  dollars  each  year  since  1910.  The 
average  increase  for  the  years  1916  and  1917 
was  more  than  $1,700,000  a  year.  Germany's 
annual  pre-war  contributions,  a  little  over  $2,- 
000,000,  are  now  entirely  made  up  by  the  in- 
creased contributions  of  the  Allied  countries  so 
that,  in  spite  of  the  War,  the  world's  foreign  mis- 
sionary work  goes  on  with  no  net  reduction  of 
program.  In  the  year  1917  the  United  States 
and  Canada  contributed  more  than  half  of  the 
entire  fund  for  the  Protestant  foreign  missionary 
work  of  the  world. 

Present  indications  are  that  the  next  decade 
will  witness  such  a  rapid  extension  of  the  work 
as  will  be  quite  unprecedented  in  the  history  of 
Christianity.  The  Methodist  Episcopal  Church 
is  now  engaged  in  a  campaign  which  contemplates 
as  one  of  its  objects  the  raising  of  $8,000,000  a 
[209] 


THE  DEMOCRATIC  MOVEMENT  IN  ASIA 

year  for  a  period  of  five  years  for  foreign  mission- 
ary work,  a  proposed  annual  increase  of  $5,- 
000,000  a  year,  aside  from  $1,000,000  which  is 
raised  each  year  by  its  Woman's  Foreign  Mission- 
ary Society.  The  Methodist  Episcopal  Church, 
South,  is  similarly  planning  for  increasing  its 
gifts  for  five  years  at  the  rate  of  more  than  $1,- 
500,000  a  year.  The  Presbyterian,  Disciples,  Con- 
gregationalist,  and  Baptist  denominations  have 
under  consideration  similar  special  campaigns. 

One  of  the  most  remarkable  facts  with  ref- 
erence to  the  present  status  of  foreign  missionary 
work  is  that  the  native  constituencies  on  the 
various  fields  give  annually  about  one  dollar  for 
every  five,  four,  or  even  less,  which  is  contributed 
by  the  churches  in  the  home  lands.  For  example, 
while  the  various  societies  of  the  United  States 
and  Canada  contributed  in  1917  $20,405,493, 
these  same  organizations  collected  not  less  than 
$4,740,141  on  the  fields  in  which  they  were  work- 
ing. In  order  to  appreciate  the  full  force  of  this 
comparison,  one  must  remember  that  a  dollar 
in  the  mission  fields  represents  from  five  to  twenty 
times  as  much  labor  as  it  does  in  America.  Four 
million,  seven  hundred  thousand  dollars  con- 
tributed in  the  non-Christian  world  is  easily 
equivalent  to  fifty  million  dollars  collected  in  the 
United  States  or  Canada.  There  could  hardly 
be  a  more  sufficient  proof  than  this,  that  the 
foreign  missionary  is  genuinely  welcomed  in  the 
countries  to  which  he  goes. 

The  contributions  to  missionary  work  collected 
[210] 


THE  BUSINESS  SIDE  OF  MISSIONS 

on  the  fields  are  constantly  increasing.  Three  or 
four  years  ago  a  young  contract  teacher  went 
out  to  take  charge  of  a  large  Chinese  school 
for  boys.  In  a  short  time  the  school  had  become 
so  large  that  an  additional  building  was  necessary. 
He  assumed  the  responsibility  of  securing  a 
building  fund  of  $20,000  from  the  native  con- 
stituency. One  of  the  first  men  to  whom  he 
went  said,  "I  am  not  interested  in  this  project, 
but  if  you  will  start  a  fund  for  a  college  to  be 
placed  by  the  side  of  the  school,  I  will  give  you 
$50,000  and  I  think  I  can  lead  you  to  a  man 
who  will  give  more  than  that."  The  friend 
actually  subscribed  $100,000  and  another  Chinese 
gentleman  put  his  name  down  for  $100,000  more. 
In  a  few  weeks  the  young  teacher  found  himself 
carrying  around  a  subscription  list  which  showed 
signatures  to  the  value  of  nearly  $600,000,  gold, 
and  gifts  of  land  which  are  conservatively  valued 
at  more  than  three  times  that  amount.  For  the 
new  college  there  is  to  be  a  board  of  directors 
in  which  the  mission  appoints  the  majority  of 
the  members,  and  the  institution  will  be  dis- 
tinctly a  missionary  enterprise. 

The  Chinese  Young  Men's  Christian  Associa- 
tion has  for  years  paid  its  own  expenses.  Money 
has  been  contributed  from  the  United  States  for 
new  property  only  when  the  Chinese  themselves 
had  secured  sufiicient  funds  to  erect  the  buildings. 
All  current  expenses  and  the  salaries  of  the 
Chinese  workers  have  been  carried  by  the  Chinese. 
Only  salaries  for  the  secretaries  appointed  by  the 
[211] 


THE  DEMOCRATIC  MOVEMENT  IN  ASIA 

International  Committee  have  been  contributed 
from  abroad.  At  least  one  missionary  board  is 
proposing  to  make  all  contributions  for  property 
in  China  contingent  upon  the  amounts  contributed 
by  the  Chinese  constituency. 

Because  of  the  large  sums  of  money  involved, 
the  business  side  of  foreign  missions  becomes  a 
subject  of  general  financial  interest.  The  mis- 
sionary as  a  business  man  is  an  important  repre- 
sentative abroad  of  American  business  life.  The 
many  millions  which  the  American  missionary 
spends  in  Asia  each  year  become  a  factor  in 
international  credits,  and  the  fact  that  a  great 
deal  of  this  money  is  spent  on  American-made 
goods  is  an  item  not  to  be  overlooked  in  inter- 
national trade.  It  is  of  immediate  interest  to 
know  in  what  degree  the  missionary  is  a  worthy 
representative  of  American  business  in  his  com- 
mercial dealings  with  peoples  whose  judgments 
of  America  are  becoming  of  daily  increasing  im- 
portance to  our  commercial  and  political  welfare. 

Mission  drafts  are  sent  to  the  various  fields  in 
small  denominations,  because  they  are  imme- 
diately sold  and  become  a  commercial  commodity 
which  may  be  handled  most  easily  in  small  sums. 
In  Liberia,  West  Africa,  where  the  state  currency 
system  is  neither  very  stable  nor  elastic,  it  has 
been  the  custom  of  one  board  for  many  years  to 
send  its  drafts  in  twenty-five  and  fifty-cent 
denominations.  These  pieces  of  paper  are  used 
very  widely  as  currency  and  often  circulate  for 
several  years  before  they  are  returned  to  the 


THE  MISSIONARY  HAS  ADDED  TO 
HIS  NUMBERLESS  OTHER  TASKS 
THAT  OF  THE  BUSINESS  MAN  TO 
WHOM  VERY  LARGE  PROPERTY  AND 
FINANCIAL  INTERESTS  ARE  IN- 
TRUSTED. THE  WORLD  IS  NOW 
SPENDING  NEARLY  FORTY  MILLION 
DOLLARS  A  YEAR  ON  FOREIGN  MIS- 
SIONS. 


THE  BUSINESS  SIDE  OF  MISSIONS 

New  York  oflBce  for  collection.  Not  long  ago 
a  twenty-five-cent  bill  was  returned  which  had 
been  out  about  thirty  years.  It  is  interesting  to 
note  that  during  that  entire  time  the  negotiable 
value  of  that  paper  rested  solely  on  the  credit 
of  the  missionary  society.  Throughout  the  mis- 
sion fields  the  drafts  of  the  mission  boards  are 
well  known  in  banking  circles  and  among  the 
money  changers.  In  such  a  country  as  China, 
where  the  national  currency  is  chaotic,  these 
drafts  are  a  much  more  satisfactory  form  of 
money  than  many  of  the  bills  which  have  been 
endorsed  by  the  local  banks  or  by  the  state. 

When  the  War  broke  out,  as  every  one  remem- 
bers, foreign  exchange  was  badly  demoralized. 
I  was  in  India  at  the  time  and  recall  a  certain 
hot  Sunday  which,  but  for  the  mercy  of  a  British 
railway  officer  at  a  small  station,  would  have 
been  meatless,  wheatless,  and  even  entirely 
eatless,  because  my  only  negotiable  paper  hap- 
pened to  be  an  American  draft,  the  like  of  which 
no  one  had  ever  seen  before  and  which  everyone 
was  therefore  afraid  to  honor.  Woe  unto  the 
man  in  those  days  who  was  away  from  estab- 
lished bank  communications  and  without  the 
universal  medium  of  an  English  sovereign. 

For  some  months  after  the  War  began  the 
missionaries  were  in  much  the  same  precarious 
financial  condition  as  I  was  for  the  single  day. 
American  exchange,  which  at  normal  is  better 
than  300  rupees  for  100  gold  dollars,  dropped 
down  to  247  rupees.  Nevertheless,  mission  bills 
[213] 


THE  DEMOCRATIC  MOVEMENT  IN  ASIA 

had  to  be  honored  promptly.  The  result  was 
that  those  missions  which  lacked  well-fortified 
bank  credits  or  which  were  under  standing  orders 
from  home  to  sell  their  drafts  without  delay, 
were  compelled  to  turn  in  their  dollars  and 
receive  in  exchange  the  equivalent  of  about 
eighty-three  cents. 

Dr.  Rockwell  Clancy,  treasurer  of  one  of  the 
largest  American  missions  in  North  India,  had 
for  several  years,  all  unknowingly,  been  prepar- 
ing for  such  a  day  of  reckoning.  His  maneuvers 
during  those  first  trying  months  not  only  illustrate 
some  of  the  duties  of  a  mission  treasurer,  but  also 
reveal  something  of  the  skill  with  which  those 
duties  may  be  discharged. 

When  Dr.  Clancy  first  took  hold  of  the  finances 
for  his  mission  he  found  many  difficulties  con- 
fronting him.  During  an  earlier  period  of  mis- 
sionary history  the  individual  missionary  had 
been  allowed  no  little  freedom  in  the  manage- 
ment of  the  affairs  of  his  institutions.  As  a  result 
many  of  the  mission  properties  were  heavily 
mortgaged  at  high  rates  of  interest.  Again,  al- 
though there  were  large  sums  of  money  flowing 
into  the  various  missions  each  year,  no  effort 
had  been  made  to  build  up  a  centralized  credit 
in  which  the  resources  of  the  group  could  be 
pooled  for  the  common  good.  As  rapidly  as 
possible  Dr.  Clancy  established  a  strong  credit 
with  one  of  the  banks.  Then  he  began  the 
refunding  of  mortgages  by  the  simple  process 
of  going  to  each  creditor,  with  the  money  in  his 
[  214  ] 


THE  BUSINESS  SIDE  OF  MISSIONS 

hand,  the  day  a  loan  fell  due  and  offering  either 
to  pay  up  the  mortgage  with  money  he  had 
borrowed  from  the  bank  or  to  renew  it  at  a  lower 
rate.  Eight  per  cent  interest  was  cut  to  seven, 
and  seven  to  six  and  one  half.  Having  been 
around  the  circle  and  effected  a  first  reduction, 
he  went  around  again  the  next  year  and  cut  the 
interest  another  one-half  per  cent.  At  length  he 
reached  rock  bottom,  but  meanwhile  he  had 
drawn  the  attention  of  the  banks  to  his  methods 
and  won  their  confidence.  In  time  he  was  able 
to  clear  nearly  all  the  mission  property  and  then 
to  secure  a  credit  of  several  himdred  thousand 
rupees. 

When  the  outbreak  of  the  War  demoralized 
the  exchange  rate,  Dr.  Clancy  was  able  to  hold 
his  drafts  and  borrow  at  the  bank  to  meet  his 
regular  expenditures.  Many  other  missions  were 
compelled  to  offer  their  drafts  for  sale  and  take 
whatever  was  offered.  In  a  few  months  trade 
began  to  flow  in  from  across  the  Pacific,  the 
demand  for  and  respect  for  American  paper  in 
the  Indian  market  increased  proportionately,  and 
when  the  exchange  reached  par  Dr.  Clancy  sold 
his  drafts  without  loss. 

A  few  months  ago  I  cashed  a  draft  with  him 
at  the  rate  of  310.  The  next  week  in  Bombay  I 
offered  a  similar  draft  to  one  of  the  largest  banks 
in  India  and  received  only  305.  I  protested,  re- 
marking that  Clancy  of  Delhi  had  given  me  the 
better  rate.  The  cashier  looked  incredulous.  The 
next  day  the  manager  of  the  bank  invited  me 
[215] 


THE  DEMOCRATIC  MOVEMENT  IN  ASIA 

into  his  private  office  and  put  me  through  some 
questions.  Was  I  sure  that  Clancy  was  selling 
his  drafts  for  310?  Yes,  he  had  made  an  arrange- 
ment with  one  bank  to  handle  all  his  drafts  at 
that  rate  for  the  next  three  months.  The  manager 
knew  Clancy  and  thought  he  knew  the  Indian 
banks,  but  the  high  rate  was  mystifying.  At 
length  he  confessed  to  me  that  the  best  his  bank 
was  able  to  get  for  these  same  drafts  was  308. 

The  volume  of  mission  business  in  Shanghai 
is  so  large  that  it  has  been  found  profitable  for 
six  of  the  larger  organizations,  the  Baptist  For- 
eign Missionary  Society,  the  Boards  of  Foreign 
Missions  of  both  the  Northern  and  the  Southern 
Presbyterian,  the  Northern  and  Southern  Meth- 
odist Episcopal  Churches,  and  the  London  Mis- 
sionary Society,  to  establish  joint  offices  in  which 
different  departments  are  created  to  handle 
specialized  kinds  of  work.  While  there  is  no 
actual  consolidation  such  as  would  be  involved 
in  the  actual  pooling  of  credit,  one  man  takes 
entire  charge  of  the  selling  of  drafts  for  all  the 
boards;  another  has  charge  of  transportation. 
This  office  is  also  being  used  by  some  of  the 
smaller  missions  which  are  not  definitely  repre- 
sented in  the  offices.  The  next  step  in  Shanghai 
would  seem  to  be  the  establishment  of  a  joint 
purchasing  agency  for  all  of  the  missions.  The 
obstacle  to  be  met  in  such  a  venture  is  one  which 
frequently  crops  up  as  the  missionary  organiza- 
tions seek  to  develop  further  efficiency  and  econ- 
omy in  management:  mission  work  is  carried  on 
[216] 


THE  BUSINESS  SIDE  OF  MISSIONS 

without  capital  other  than  property  investments. 
The  money  is  contributed  from  year  to  year  for 
immediate  use.  It  is  difficult  to  create  capital 
funds  which  may  be  carried  over  from  one  year 
to  another,  and  used  as  seems  wise  to  take  ad- 
vantage of  the  opportunities  which  arise  in  the 
transaction  of  so  large  a  business. 

The  distribution  of  American-made  goods 
through  the  missionaries  reaches  proportions 
which  few  people  realize.  The  total  foreign  staff 
of  missionaries  from  the  United  States  and 
Canada  is  now  over  11,000  and  is  increasing  at 
the  rate  of  700  a  year.  The  foreign  community 
thus  created,  including  wives  and  children,  is 
much  larger  than  that.  In  addition  to  the  per- 
sonal wants  of  these  people,  there  are  the  de- 
mands for  equipment  for  their  work.  The 
missionary  is  therefore  a  buyer  of  every  conceiv- 
able commodity,  from  needles  to  musical  instru- 
ments and  traction  engines.  One  mission  board 
a  few  years  ago  sent  an  entire  shipload  of  Oregon 
pine  to  Shanghai.  Hardware  for  buildings  is 
purchased  almost  entirely  in  America.  Rice-mills 
are  sent  to  China,  portable  saw-mills  to  Africa, 
and  electrical  apparatus  goes  everywhere. 

Not  long  ago  an  American  doctor  found  him- 
self commissioned  to  depart  into  one  of  the 
waste  spaces  of  Korea  and  build  a  hospital. 
He  was  in  urgent  need  of  a  larger  water  supply. 
Turning  to  his  mail-order  catalogue,  which  in 
most  missionary  homes  shares  the  most  con- 
venient shelf  with  the  Bible,  he  found  a  picture 
[217] 


THE  DEMOCRATIC  MOVEMENT  IN  ASIA 

of  a  windmill  which  would  exactly  answer  his 
purpose.  He  sent  in  his  order,  and  received  the 
windmill  just  as  he  might  have  received  a  pair 
of  shoes  or  a  baby  carriage.  The  instructions 
were  so  complete  that  with  the  aid  of  native 
assistants  he  was  able  to  assemble  the  parts  and 
erect  his  mill  without  difficulty.  Now  the  natives 
come  many  miles  to  see  the  example  of  Yankee 
ingenuity  which  draws  and  distributes  water 
without  the  aid  of  human  labor. 

Incidentally  it  may  be  noted  that  the  increased 
earning  power  of  mission  school  graduates  is 
developing  immense  sources  of  new  wealth  in 
Asia  and  is  increasing  the  purchasing  power  of 
the  natives  to  a  very  marked  degree.  A  mission- 
ary at  Penang,  on  the  Malay  Peninsula,  has 
estimated  that  the  earning  capacity  of  his  school 
graduates  has  increased  on  the  average  from 
twenty-five  dollars  a  month  to  seventy-five.  At 
that  rate  the  8,000  boys  who  pass  through  the 
schools  of  that  region  in  a  generation  have  a 
total  increased  earning  capacity  of  nearly  $5,000,- 
000  a  year.  When  one  remembers  that  every 
educated  Chinese  boy  in  that  country  insists  on 
wearing  European  style  clothes  and  foot-wear, 
and  carries  not  only  a  watch  but  also  a  fountain 
pen,  one  realizes  how  very  great  is  the  influence  of 
the  missions  in  developing  new  markets  in  Asia. 

Another  interesting  phase  of  foreign  missionary 
business  is  printing  and  publishing.  The  mis- 
sionary introduced  the  modern  printing  press  into 
Asia  and  Africa  to  supply  the  printed  matter 
[ai8] 


THE  SPIRIT  OP  NEW  CHINA  18 
NOWHERE  MORE  IN  EVIDENCE  THAN 
ON  THE  NEW  ATHLETIC  FIELDS 
WHICH  WERE  FIRST  INTRODUCED  BY 
THE  MISSION  SCHOOLS  AND  WHICH 
ARE  NOW  BEING  MULTIPLIED  AMONG 
THE  GOVERNMENT  INSTITUTIONS. 


THE  BUSINESS  SIDE  OF  MISSIONS 

necessary  for  the  propagation  of  the  work.  At 
first  the  chief  output  was  Bibles,  tracts,  and 
school  books.  The  business  has  constantly  ex- 
panded until  it  now  includes  as  wide  a  variety 
of  jobs  as  will  be  found  in  many  publishing 
houses  in  the  United  States.  I  have  in  mind  one 
such  house,  in  Singapore,  which  did  a  business 
last  year  of  $80,000,  and  showed  a  profit  of  over 
$10,000,  all  of  which  was  used  to  extend  the 
less  remunerative  evangelistic  work.  This  estab- 
lishment is  the  largest  educational  supply  house 
in  the  Straits  Settlements,  and  publishes  more 
books  each  year  than  all  of  the  other  printers 
put  together.  There  are  about  eighty  employes, 
only  three  of  whom  are  Europeans.  Eight  or  ten 
languages  are  spoken  in  the  shop  and  literature 
is  published  in  eight  languages.  Last  year  this 
house  put  out,  in  addition  to  its  regular  run  of 
religious  literature,  three  geographies,  as  well  as 
a  dictionary  of  the  Malay  language. 

Most  missions  are  now  finding  it  more  profit- 
able to  let  out  their  printing  to  native  establish- 
ments, many  of  which  owe  their  origin  to  the 
training  offered  in  the  mission  press.  It  is  doubt- 
ful whether  there  will  ever  be  a  greater  extension 
of  the  mission  printing  business,  but  the  work  of 
publishing  will  probably  assume  much  greater 
proportions.  There  is  now  no  new  opportunity 
open  to  the  missionary  which  promises  better 
rewards  for  the  effort  than  the  creation  of  new 
national  literatures. 

The  property  holdings  of  the  various  American 
[219] 


THE  DEMOCRATIC  MOVEMENT  IN  ASIA 

mission  boards  are  probably  in  excess  of  $150,- 
000,000.  It  is  utterly  impossible  to  know  what 
proportion  of  this  amount  represents  original  in- 
vestment and  what  ought  to  be  charged  as 
appreciation  in  value.  There  is  no  form  of  real 
estate  investment  which  is  more  sure  to  show 
large  appreciation  than  that  spent  on  mission 
property  and  buildings  for  missions.  Mission 
property,  because  of  its  well-kept  appearance, 
the  quality  of  the  buildings,  and  the  improve- 
ment of  sanitation,  almost  always  attracts  the 
better  class  of  native  property  owners,  the  result 
being  the  development  of  a  select  community 
and  large  increases  in  values.  The  relatively 
low  cost  of  land  and  of  building,  and  the  large 
gifts  from  the  native  constituency  mean  that 
mission  properties  acquire  a  value  all  out  of 
proportion  to  what  similar  investments  at  home 
would  amount  to. 

Mission  organizations  do  not  escape  the  vague 
charge  that  is  some  time  or  other  brought  against 
most  philanthropic  societies,  that  their  overhead 
expenses  are  so  large  as  to  eat  up  most  of  the 
funds  contributed  before  they  actually  reach  the 
fields.  A  brief  description  of  the  channels  through 
which  missionary  money  travels  between  the 
time  when  it  leaves  the  contributor's  pocket  and 
when  it  is  applied  to  the  work  will  show  how 
baseless  is  the  suspicion. 

The   constituency   from   which   the   money   is 

collected  is  the  membership  of  the  denomination. 

That  membership   may   be  less   than   1,000,000 

[220] 


1 


THE  BUSINESS  SIDE  OF  MISSIONS 

people  represented  by  5,000  congregations,  or  it 
may  be  4,000,000  in  30,000  different  churches. 
The  average  contributions  of  these  constituents 
do  not  equal  a  penny  a  day.  The  problem  of 
collecting  that  money  closely  parallels  that  of 
an  insurance  company  which  collects  its  pre- 
miums in  small  weekly  payments.  The  overhead 
expenses  for  such  forms  of  insurance  are  notori- 
ously high,  but  in  the  collection  of  missionary 
funds  there  is  relatively  little  expense,  because 
every  church  organization,  every  Sunday  school, 
and  every  local  missionary  society  acts  as  a 
collection  agency,  sending  in  one  hundred  cents 
of  every  dollar  to  the  treasurer. 

The  cultivation  of  this  constituency  is  done 
largely  by  the  oflScers  of  the  various  missionary 
organizations  in  the  local  church  and  by  the 
minister.  All  of  this  service  also  is  without  cost 
to  the  missionary  administration.  The  only  out- 
side help  which  the  local  church  receives  usually 
comes  from  the  missionary  who  is  home  on 
furlough  once  in  six  or  seven  years.  The  expense 
of  the  missionary's  furlough  salary  is  relatively 
small,  so  small  that  many  missionaries  complain 
bitterly  about  it,  and  in  any  case  the  mission 
boards  would  be  compelled  to  bear  this  charge 
whether  the  missionary  were  engaged  in  stim- 
ulating contributions  or  not.  The  bulk  of  the 
expense  involved  in  gathering  the  money  which 
is  sent  to  the  fields  is  in  the  production  of  literature 
and  other  publicity  material  such  as  lantern 
slides.  The  overhead  charges  for  administrative 
[  221  ] 


THE  DEMOCRATIC  MOVEMENT  IN  ASIA 

work  are  almost  exclusively  for  the  maintenance 
of  a  single  office,  where  the  complex  work  of 
collection  and  distribution  of  funds,  education, 
selection  of  missionaries,  and  direction  of  the 
work  in  foreign  lands  is  centrahzed. 

The  total  overhead  expenses  of  the  various 
boards  fluctuate  from  year  to  year  between  five 
and  ten  per  cent,  the  average  being  about  seven. 
In  view  of  the  very  high  quality  of  ability  de- 
manded in  missionary  administration,  both  in 
the  direction  of  work  on  the  various  fields  and 
also  in  the  cultivation  of  the  churches  at  home, 
it  is  a  question  whether  the  usual  overhead 
charges  could  not  be  greatly  increased,  with  a 
proportionate  increase  in  the  extent  and  efficiency 
of  the  entire  work. 

One  of  the  most  serious  defects  in  present 
missionary  organization  lies  in  the  custom  of 
depending  upon  the  missionary  himself  to  finance 
large  parts  of  his  own  work,  through  the  cultiva- 
tion of  special  gifts.  As  indicated  in  a  previous 
chapter,  a  missionary  is  frequently  sent  to  a  station 
where  the  appropriations  from  home  do  not 
cover  more  than  one  half  or  even  a  third  of  the 
budget  for  current  expenses.  He  is  expected  to 
secure  the  balance  of  the  money  from  individuals 
at  home  whom  he  may  be  able  to  interest.  While 
these  fimds  are  usually  handled  by  the  boards 
treasurers  and  are  noted  in  the  annual  reports,* 
they  represent  a  most  costly  method  of  financing 
work. 
At  least  a  half-dozen  years  are  required  for  a   i 

[  ^^^  ]  I 


THE  BUSINESS  SIDE  OF  MISSIONS 

missionary  to  learn  the  language  and  accumulate 
sufficient  experience  to  prepare  him  for  maximum 
usefulness  in  the  work.  By  that  time  he  has 
become  a  highly  trained  specialist,  whose  capabil- 
ities cannot  be  duplicated  except  by  a  similar 
process  of  selection,  training,  and  experience. 
Many  of  these  men  tell  me  that  they  are  now 
compelled  to  spend  more  than  half  of  their  time 
in  writing  letters  and  in  the  preparation  of  re- 
ports for  their  own  personal  constituency.  It  is 
probably  not  an  overestimate  to  say  that  the 
potential  efficiency  of  the  present  missionary 
force  is  not  over  fifty  per  cent  of  what  it  would 
be  if  all  the  money  for  the  work  could  be  raised 
without  the  necessity  of  the  direct  personal 
solicitation  of  the  missionary. 

Again,  the  person  who  is  most  successful  in 
raising  money  may  not  be  the  most  effective 
missionary  on  the  field.  In  such  cases  there  is 
a  great  tendency  for  the  money  to  be  apportioned 
not  so  much  with  reference  to  the  proportionate 
needs  of  the  entire  work  as  to  the  location  of  the 
missionary  who  secures  the  gifts.  A  still  more 
serious  defect  of  this  condition  is  that  when  the 
missionary  is  at  home  on  furlough  he  is  per- 
mitted practically  no  time  for  rest  or  for  such 
further  technical  study  as  his  special  tasks  on 
the  field  may  demand.  The  missionary  now  has 
to  specialize  in  the  educational  and  medical 
fields  to  such  an  extent  that  it  is  absolutely 
necessary  that  he  have  opportunities  for  post- 
graduate studies,  such  as  are  possible  only  when 


THE  DEMOCRATIC  MOVEMENT  IN  ASIA 

he  is  on  furlough.  Thus,  in  at  least  three  differ- 
ent ways  the  missionary  work  abroad  is  heavily 
taxed  in  eflSciency,  because  the  mission  boards 
at  home  have  never  effectively  organized  to  take 
over  completely  the  work  of  securing  the  in- 
creasing contributions  which  the  growing  work 
requires. 

The  problem  of  securing  contributions  to  foreign 
missions  may  be  considered  essentially  a  problem 
in  advertising.  There  is  a  select  constituency 
which  in  the  United  States  amounts  to  about 
25,000,000  people,  namely,  the  Protestant  church 
membership.  The  existing  ecclesiastical  organ- 
izations are  in  direct  contact  with  this  great 
mass  of  people  and  are  channels  of  effective 
communication  with  the  membership.  This  con- 
stituency is  already  partially  sold  to  the  idea  of 
foreign  missions.  It  is  committed  to  the  work 
to  the  extent  of  approximately  eighty  cents  a  per- 
son annually.  Certainly  there  are  few  advertis- 
ing propositions  possible  today  which  would  start 
with  so  many  conditions  in  their  favor. 

A  closer  examination  of  the  figures  reveals  the 
fact   that    the    constituency    is    cultivated    very 
unevenly  and  that  it  responds  not  at  all  in  pro-# 
portion  to  the  wealth.    The  per  capita  contribu-"^ 
tions  to  foreign  missions  vary  among  the  larger 
denominations  from  ninety  cents  a  member  to 
a  little  less  than  two  dollars  and  twenty  cents. 
In    general,    the    larger    the    denomination,    the|^ 
smaller  the  per  capita  contribution.    The  United 
Presbyterian  Church,  which  has  a  membership   ; 
[224]  I 


r. 

1 

-.JmK 

^S 

^ 

IT  IS  ESTIMATED  THAT  THE  RICH 
PLAIN  OF  WHICH  THESE  PADDY 
FIELDS  ARE  A  PART  HAS  SUPPORTED 
A  POPULATION  OF  MORE  THAN  FIVE 
THOUSAND  PEOPLE  TO  THE  SQUARE 
MILE.  MORE        RECENTLY       THERE 

HAVE  BEEN  LARGE  EMIGRATIONS  TO 
BORNEO  AND  MALAYSIA.  PRIMITIVE 
INDUSTRIAL  METHODS  ARE  STILL 
ALMOST  EXCLUSIVELY   EMPLOYED. 


•  .*         I    Loot 


THE  BUSINESS  SIDE  OF  MISSIONS 

of  only  about  160,000,  contributes  nearly  four 
dollars  a  year  for  each  member.  The  Presby- 
terians, with  1,500,000  members,  give  about  a 
dollar  and  a  quarter;  the  Methodist  Episcopal 
Church,  with  nearly  4,000,000,  gives  only  a  dollar 
and  six  cents.  It  is  a  matter  of  common  knowl- 
edge that  when  this  $20,000,000  a  year  which  is 
contributed  from  all  the  churches  is  viewed  from 
the  angle  of  the  individual  church,  it  is  found 
that  it  is  practically  all  being  given  by  less  than 
a  third  of  the  church  members.  Two-thirds  of 
the  Protestant  church  members  give  almost 
nothing  to  foreign  missions. 

The  development  of  contributions  in  this  vast 
constituency  ought  to  prove  increasingly  easy. 
The  War,  in  which  so  many  of  the  backward 
races  are  freely  and  eagerly  participating,  is 
creating  a  new  sense  of  friendliness  among  the 
white  race  for  peoples  with  a  tinted  skin.  The 
War  is  also  widening  the  horizons  of  people  who 
have  hitherto  had  only  a  parochial  outlook. 
The  coming  peace  conference  will  be  face  to  face 
with  the  question  of  how  to  apply  the  principle 
of  self-determination  to  races  which  are  obviously 
not  yet  prepared  to  determine  matters  for  them- 
selves. It  ought  to  be  very  easy  to  urge  the  value 
and  the  necessity  of  foreign  missions  in  these 
days  which  are  just  ahead  of  us.  President  Wil- 
son recently  said  in  a  letter  to  a  missionary  now 
home  on  furlough: 

*T  entirely  agree  with  you  in  regard  to  the 
missionary  work.  I  think  it  would  be  a  real 
[225] 


THE  DEMOCRATIC  MOVEMENT  IN  ASIA 

misfortune,  a  misfortune  of  lasting  consequence, 
if  the  missionary  program  for  the  world  should 
be  interrupted.  That  the  work  undertaken  should 
be  continued  and  continued  ...  at  its  full  force, 
seems  to  me  of  capital  necessity,  and  I  hope 
for  one  that  there  may  be  no  slackening  or  re- 
cession of  any  sort.  I  wish  that  I  had  time  to 
write  you  as  fully  as  this  great  subject  demands, 
but  I  have  put  my  whole  thought  into  these  few 
sentences  and  I  hope  you  will  feel  at  liberty  to 
use  this  expression  of  opinion  in  any  way  that 
you  think  best." 

As  a  matter  of  fact,  the  subject  of  foreign 
missions  has  not  always  been  presented  in  terms 
to  which  the  average  church  member  will  re- 
spond. He  has  not  seen  in  it  a  world  movement 
in  which  humanitarian  purposes  are  mingled  with 
those  of  self-preservation  for  civiHzation  itself. 
The  facts  as  to  the  moral  and  spiritual  impover- 
ishment of  the  non-Christian  races  are  unchanged 
and  must  be  as  potent  an  argument  as  ever  to 
those  who  support  foreign  missions  because  of 
its  evangelistic  purpose.  On  the  other  hand, 
for  those  who  have  dismissed  the  older  mission- 
ary appeal  with  the  answer,  uttered  or  unex- 
pressed, that  "their  religion  is  good  enough  for 
them,"  there  is  the  challenge  of  the  new  world 
which  the  War  is  creating,  a  world  of  freedom 
and  democracy.  To  quote  President  Wilson, 
again:  "Religion  is  the  only  force  in  the  worl< 
that  I  have  ever  heard  of  that  does  actualb 
transform  the  life;  and  the  proof  of  the  tranS' 
[226] 


THE  BUSINESS  SIDE  OF  MISSIONS 

formation  is  to  be  found  all  over  the  world,  and 
is  multiplied  and  repeated  as  Christianity  gains 
fresh  territory  in  the  heathen  world." 

The  facts  to  support  this  statement  are  ample 
and  easily  available.  The  increase  of  gifts  for 
foreign  missionary  work  is  largely  a  matter  of 
setting  these  facts  before  the  people.  The  fact 
that  contributions  in  the  United  States,  and 
with  some  exceptions  in  England,  have  not  only 
held  their  own  during  the  period  of  the  War, 
but  have  actually  increased,  would  seem  to  indi- 
cate that  the  Protestant  Church  has  already 
begun  to  respond  to  the  new  appeal. 


[227] 


FOREIGN  MISSIONS  AND  WORLD-WIDE 
DEMOCRACY 


CHAPTER  XI 

FOREIGN  MISSIONS  AND  WORLD-WIDE 
DEMOCRACY 

Permit  us  to  introduce  Mr.  Hoong,  the  $50,000 
senator  from  Chung-chung.  That  is  not  his 
name  and  that  isn't  the  place  he  comes  from,  but 
it  is  what  he  paid  for  his  seat  at  Peking. 

Mr.  Hoong  lives  in  a  magnificent  house  in 
one  of  the  provincial  capitals  of  China.  The 
street  which  leads  past  it  is  wide,  at  least  twenty- 
five  feet  wide,  and  it  is  paved  with  long  slippery 
flag  stones.  Opposite  the  entrance  is  a  high 
wall,  with  sides  bent  in  like  a  barricade.  This 
wall  is  a  part  of  the  house  architecturally,  although 
on  the  opposite  side  of  the  street  and  necessarily 
detached.  The  purpose  is  to  thwart  the  ingress 
of  the  evil  spirits  who  can  fly  only  in  straight 
lines.  They  are  diverted  from  entering  the  door 
because  they  have  either  already  smashed  their 
heads,  like  bats,  against  the  wall,  or  have  had  to 
tiu-n  around  it,  and  then,  when  they  got  under 
way  again,  found  themselves  headed  up  the 
street.  Also,  that  wall  opposite  the  door,  in 
direct  proportion  to  its  width,  height,  and  dis- 
tance from  the  house,  measures  the  degree  of 
social  altitude  of  the  family. 

We  pass  in  turn  another  sharp  corner,  also 
arranged  for  the  confusion  of  the  evil  spirits, 
[  231  ] 


THE  DEMOCRATIC  MOVEMENT  IN  ASIA 

and  find  ourselves  in  the  first  courtyard.  The 
servant  takes  our  cards,  bows,  arranges  them 
like  a  fan  with  the  most  honored  card  closest 
to  him,  holds  them  up  over  his  left  shoulder, 
then  faces  towards  us,  and  we  follow  him  through 
some  more  courtyards,  around  some  more  angular 
spiritual  barricades,  and  at  length  are  shown  into 
the  reception  room.  We  take  seats  in  lowly 
places  at  the  side;  at  our  elbows  are  little  square 
inlaid  tables  such  as  those  with  which  China- 
town restaurants  have  made  us  familiar.  The 
servants  bring  steaming  perfumed  towels  with 
which  to  wipe  our  faces,  and  then  tea.  The 
wives,  or  perhaps  just  the  women-folks,  begin 
to  peek  in  at  the  side  door  in  the  rear,  like  chil- 
dren from  the  nursery.    Mr.  Hoong  enters. 

As  he  approaches  he  puts  his  hands  together 
in  his  long  sleeves,  making  a  muff,  bows  many 
times,  and  draws  in  his  breath  continuously 
through  his  teeth  with  a  sharp  hissing  sound. 
He  is  glad  to  see  us.  Those  seats  are  not  suffi- 
ciently honorable  for  such  distinguished  guests. 
Almost  before  we  know  it  we  are  escorted  to  the 
end  of  the  room,  to  a  dais,  back  of  which  hang 
some  beautifully  lettered  scrolls  and  a  painting, 
and  are  seated  in  magnificently  carved  chairs 
which  would  be  the  envy  of  the  Metropolitan  Mu- 
seum. "Servant,  bring  some  better  tea  for  these 
honorable  guests  from  Across-the-Ocean-Land." 

Mr.  Hoong  speaks  no  English,  but  he  is  par- 
ticularly appreciative  of  the  honor  we  have  done 
him  in  calling.  He  is  soon  to  go  to  Peking  and 
[232] 


EVER  SINCE  THE  BOXER  UPRIS- 
ING, THE  FOREIGN  LEGATIONS  HAVE 
MAINTAINED  SUFFICIENT  TROOPS 
WITHIN  THE  LEGATION  QUARTERS 
AT  PEKING  TO  AFFORD  TEMPORARY 
DEFENSE,  AND  AT  TIENTSIN  VERY 
MUCH  LARGER  NUMBERS  OF  TROOPS 
HAVE  BEEN  ASSEMBLED.  THESE  ARE 
MOUNTED  AMERICAN  MARINES  GAL- 
LOPING THROUGH  A  PEKING  STREET. 


I 


FOREIGN  MISSIONS  AND  DEMOCRACY 

wishes  to  confer  with  us  to  obtain  our  advice 
as  to  what  can  be  done  for  China.  If  it  is  con- 
venient he  will  call  upon  us  tomorrow  at  ten 
o'clock.  Yes,  he  is  honored  that  we  wish  to  take  a 
picture  of  his  humble  self  seated  there  on  the  dais 
with  the  other  honored  guest  in  his  miserable  house. 

Thus  Senator  Hoong  pays  his  tribute  to  Western 
civilization  and  to  Christianity.  I  was  intro- 
duced by  a  missionary.  He  knew  nothing  of  me 
personally.  To  him  I  was  merely  the  repre- 
sentative of  those  vaguely  outlined  lands  in  the 
West  whence  come  great  new  ideas  of  which 
he  knows  little.  He  lives  in  a  city,  half  a  million 
large,  which  was  opened  to  foreigners  only  a 
score  of  years  ago;  there  are  not  twenty -five 
Europeans  in  the  city  even  now.  In  this  spirit 
China  is  opening  its  doors  to  the  West,  particularly 
to  Americans.  The  Chinese  are  predisposed  to 
accept  and  honor  every  American  as  an  ambassa- 
dor. They  come  to  him  in  representative  capac- 
ities. Any  American  who  goes  to  China  today, 
in  business,  as  a  tourist,  or  as  a  missionary, 
whether  his  talents  be  small  or  great,  finds  that 
his  immediate  world  is  increased  a  hundred  fold. 
He  is  himself,  plus  all  that  Uncle  Sam  is  in  gen- 
erosity, justice,  and  character. 

Senator  Hoong  called  as  agreed,  the  following 
morning,  bringing  with  him  two  tins  of  tea, 
bound  together  with  paper  string  and  decorated 
with  roses.  The  bowing,  hissing,  and  other 
formalities  finished,  I  began  to  make  compli- 
ments and  ask  questions. 

£233] 


THE  DEMOCRATIC  MOVEMENT  IN  ASIA 

"It  is  a  very  distinguished  honor  you  do  me, 
to  make  this  call."  The  senator  made  another 
muff,  hissed  and  bowed  three  times. 

"You  are  about  to  undertake  grave  respon- 
sibilities in  Peking,"  I  suggested. 

More  hissing  and  bowing. 

"What  about  the  machinery  of  elections?"  I 
asked.    "How  is  a  senator  elected  in  China.'^" 

"By  the  provincial  assembly,"  he  explained. 
"Each  senator  is  elected  for  a  term  of  six  years. 
There  are  three  classes,  so  that  one-third  of 
the  membership  of  the  Senate  is  changed  each 
two  years.  The  provincial  assembly  is  made 
up  of  four  hundred  representatives  who  have 
been  elected  directly  by  the  citizens.  Each 
citizen  must  possess  $5,000  as  a  qualification  for 
voting.  In  some  districts  forty  voters  elect  a 
representative  to  the  provincial  assembly." 

"Is  there  no  demand  for  the  extension  of  this 
rather  limited  electorate.'^"  I  asked.  "How  about 
the  $2,000  man?" 

"Oh,  that  matter  of  a  voter's  qualifications  is 
all  left  to  the  election  board.  The  $5,000  limit 
is  not  always  enforced.  The  officials  use  their 
discretion."     Shades  of  Tammany ! 

Would  we  not  do  him  the  honor  to  come  with 
him  to  the  best  restaurant  in  town  and  have  a 
feast .f^ — some  other  callers,  meanwhile,  having 
arrived.  Of  course,  we  would  accept  with  pleasure. 
We  got  under  way,  the  senator  bringing  up  in 
the  rear  with  the  missionary. 

"See  that  man  in  the  ricksha?"  called  the 
[234] 


FOREIGN  MISSIONS  AND  DEMOCRACY 

missionary  to  me  as  we  strolled  along.  **He  is 
the  head  of  the  electric  lighting  plant." 

"He  doesn't  look  the  part.  Does  he  know 
anything  about  electricity?" 

"Not  the  slightest,"  he  replied.  "Neither  does 
his  first  assistant,  nor  his  second  assistant,  nor 
his  third.  Probably  the  tenth  man  down  the 
ladder  does  the  work.  America  has  nothing  on 
us  when  it  comes  to  government  jobs."  This  is 
a  glimpse  of  China  as  it  is  today. 

I  pass  over  the  details  of  the  feast.  The  menu 
contained  no  sea-slugs  and  no  pig's  stomach. 
In  addition,  each  guest  confined  himself  fairly 
well  to  that  arc  of  the  central  dish  which  was 
tangent  to  his  side  of  the  table.  We  had  some 
more  talk  about  the  condition  of  China. 

"Is  China  on  the  up  or  down  grade?"  I 
asked. 

"Conditions  are  very  bad,"  they  all  agreed. 

This  was  just  before  the  outbreak  of  the  recent 
revolution.  The  military  were  becoming  oppres- 
sive. The  soldiers,  men  from  other  provinces, 
recruited  from  the  lowest  classes,  were  terrorizing 
the  civilians.  Only  the  day  before  some  of  them 
had  assaulted  some  women  teachers  just  outside 
the  city  wall. 

"How,  then,  is  China  going  to  pull  out  of 
this  hole?"  I  asked. 

"She  must  borrow  some  more  money,"  replied 
the  Senator.  "Can  you  not  help  China  to  borrow 
some  more  money  from  America?" 

"But  timt  dpe^  not  seem  to  reach  the  heart 
[^35] 


THE  DEMOCRATIC  MOVEMENT  IN  ASIA 

of  your  difficulties,"  I  suggested.  "What  about 
the  character  of  your  government?" 

There  was  a  moment  of  silence.  Then  one  of 
the  guests  spoke  up,  very  earnestly,  "There  is 
no  hope  for  China  until  we  are  able  to  elect  a 
few  more  honest  officials  like  Mr.  Hoong." 

And  Senator  Hoong  paid  $50,000  for  his  seat. 
Meanwhile,  the  revolution  came  and  went  and 
there  was  no  longer  even  a  Senate  for  Mr.  Hoong 
to  sit  in. 

This  story  illuminates  the  subject  of  democracy 
in  Asia.  That  the  scene  happens  to  be  China  is 
incidental.  One  might  have  experiences  from 
which  similar  conclusions  can  be  drawn  almost 
anywhere  in  the  East. 

The  events  of  the  last  few  years  have  been 
teaching  us  that  democracy  is  not  safe  at  any 
single  point  around  the  world  until  it  is  safe  at 
every  point.  So  long  as  any  one  unit  is  out  of 
step,  the  entire  league  of  nations  is  imperiled. 
We  must  look  far  beyond  the  present  conflict 
to  weigh  the  full  measure  of  this  fact.  Suppose, 
for  the  moment,  that  what  we  so  much  desire 
has  already  been  accomplished:  assume  that  the 
War  has  been  won,  and  the  peace  settlements 
determined  which  will,  so  far  as  is  possible,  safe- 
guard the  world  from  a  recurrence  of  so  great 
a  calamity.  Will  the  world  then  be  safe  for 
democracy  .f^ 

One  has  but  to  glance  at  the  map  to  see  that 
fully  two-thirds  of  the  earth's  surface,  and  an 
equal  proportion  of  the  population,  lie  quite 
[236] 


FOREIGN  MISSIONS  AND  DEMOCRACY 

outside  the  primary  concerns  of  the  European 
conflict.  We  may  be  fully  resolved  to  enforce 
a  settlement  which  will  protect  the  weak  and 
backward  nations  and  races  from  aggression, 
but  we  must  realize  that  no  victory  of  arms  can 
protect  this  two-thirds  of  the  world  from  its 
internal  weakness  and  disorder. 

We  must  go  back  to  the  word  with  which 
this  book  began:  Democracy  is  not  merely  a  catch- 
word  of  the  War;  it  has  become  the  watchword  of 
the  world.  The  War  has  accentuated  the  ideal 
and  accelerated  its  growth;  but  long  before  the  War 
began,  the  ideal  had  thrust  down  its  roots  in  many 
soils  where  republican  institutions  were  plants 
of  exotic  growth.  Portugal  and  China  became 
nominally  republics;  Mexico  was  in  an  uproar; 
the  Philippines  and  Java  were  restless;  the  blacks 
of  South  Africa  were  threatening  to  debate  the 
question  of  whether  they  must  give  way  to  a 
"white  man's  country";  and  many  a  South 
American  government  tottered  on  a  foundation 
that  claimed  the  name,  and  yet  lacked  the  con- 
tent of  liberty,  equality,  and  brotherhood. 

Merely  to  review  the  world's  unrest  of  the 
last  decade  is  to  have  revealed  how  great  is  the 
task  to  which  the  world  has  roused  itself.  It 
is  evident  that  one  must  look  elsewhere  than  to 
the  camps  and  courts  of  Europe  for  the  leader- 
ship, methods,  and  resources  to  make  the  world 
safe  for  democracy.  One  may  reach  this  con- 
clusion without  underestimating  the  stakes  of 
the  present  conflict,  and  without  undervaluing 
[237] 


THE  DEMOCRATIC  MOVEMENT  IN  ASIA 

the   quality   of    the   heroism   which   it   has   en- 
listed. 

If  the  world  is  to  become  safe  for  democracy, 
every  nation  must  not  only  be  safeguarded  from 
invasion  and  spoliation,  but  also  must  be  made 
strong  enough  internally  to  maintain  for  itself 
justice  and  liberty.  Until  that  day  shall  come 
in  Asia,  Africa,  and  Latin  America,  as  well  as  in 
many  parts  of  Europe,  the  world  cannot  be  safe. 

One  of  the  great  movements  with  which  the 
statesmen  will  have  to  reckon  immediately  after 
the  close  of  the  War  is  the  democratic  drift  of 
the  Orient.  The  American  policy  in  the  Philip- 
pines, followed  by  the  proclamation  of  Allied 
principles  to  fight  for  the  protection  of  weak 
nations,  has  stimulated  the  imaginations  and 
ambitions  of  the  Asiatic  races  mightily. 

Not  long  ago  a  delegation  of  Dutch  officials 
visited  the  Philippines.  They  were  lavishly 
entertained,  and  one  day  went  to  see  that  great 
American  institution,  a  baseball  game.  The 
contestants  were  some  American  soldiers  and  a 
nine  drawn  from  the  native  constabulary.  It 
happened  that  the  latter  won,  whereupon  the 
soldiers  gave  the  Filipinos  a  cheer. 

"Do  Americans  take  off  their  hats  to  Filipinos 
and  cheer  them.f^"  asked  the  astonished  visitors. 

"Certainly,  when  they  win;  why  not?"  was 
the  reply. 

Shortly    after    that,    the   Dutch    Government 
made  an  additional  appropriation  of  $5,000,000 
for  popular  education  in  Java. 
[  238  ] 


MANUEL  QUEZON,  FIRST  PRESI- 
DENT OF  THE  FILIPINO  SENATE  IN 
THE  GOVERNMENT  OF  ONE  OF  THE 
FILIPINO  PROVINCES.  QUEZON  IS 
GENERALLY  REGARDED  AS  THE  MOST 
INFLUENTIAL  FILIPINO  AS  WELL  AS 
ONE  OF  THE  MOST  POPULAR.  THE 
ELEVATION  OF  SUCH  MEN  TO  HIGH 
OFFICE  UNDER  A  REPUBLICAN  SYS- 
TEM OF  GOVERNMENT  HAS  GREATLY 
STIMULATED  THE  DEMOCRATIC  MOVE- 
MENT IN  ASIA. 


FOREIGN  MISSIONS  AND  DEMOCRACY 

The  entrance  of  the  United  States  into  the 
War  was  hailed  with  jubilation.  The  leaders  in 
India  and  China  feel  that  the  Americans  will 
be  their  steadfast  friends  in  the  coming  peace 
conferences,  holding  out  for  the  application  to 
Asia  as  well  as  to  Europe  of  the  doctrine  of  the 
rights  of  weak  nations.  China  seeks  protection 
from  aggression;  she  wishes  to  be  permitted  to 
manage  her  own  affairs.  India  is  insistently  de- 
manding that  she  be  granted  great  extensions 
in  the  privileges  of  autonomy,  and  these  demands 
are  already  being  met  in  a  spirit  of  great  gen- 
erosity by  the  British  Government.  There  is 
little  doubt  that  the  Netherlands  East  Indies 
will  also  share  in  the  benefits  of  a  democratic 
peace. 

The  entire  Orient  is  beginning  to  stir  with  self- 
consciousness.  The  Pan-Asia  Movement,  though 
small,  perhaps  too  small  to  be  worthy  of  serious 
attention  at  present,  is  indicative  of  a  new  life 
and  vitality  that  hitherto  have  been  quite  un- 
known in  Asia  outside  of  Japan.  After  the  War 
is  won,  we  shall  have  to  solve  the  other  prob- 
lem of  conserving  the  results  of  the  victory  to 
those  neglected  and  restless  areas  of  the  East. 

One  has  not  to  look  farther  than  to  our  neigh- 
bor, Mexico,  to  see  how  the  weakness  of  a  weak 
nation  may  threaten  the  well-being,  and  prac- 
tically the  peace,  of  even  her  strongest  neighbor. 
China  affords  another  illustration.  Japan  claims, 
and  with  justice,  that  the  disorganization  of 
China  is  a  menace  to  the  security  of  her  Empire. 
[239] 


THE  DEMOCRATIC  MOVEMENT  IN  ASIA 

She  does  not,  perhaps,  reaHze  so  clearly  that  the 
instability  of  the  Chinese  Republic  is  a  very 
disturbing  factor  in  the  American  experiment  in 
the  Philippines.  The  United  States  has  dared 
to  lift  a  small,  weak,  and  neglected  race  of  people 
almost  to  the  point  of  self-government.  The 
experiment  gives  promise  of  success,  but  that 
success  is  dependent,  not  only  on  the  peace  of 
the  Orient,  but  also  on  the  safety  of  the  Orient 
for  democracy. 

Let  us  turn  to  India.  The  movement  for 
Home  Rule  is  no  slight  affair.  The  British 
Government  is  recognizing  its  sweep  and  force 
by  changes  in  administrative  policies  that  are 
almost  revolutionary.  India  is  demanding  full 
autonomy  in  the  management  of  internal  affairs. 
She  has  asked  that  four-fifths  of  the  members  of 
the  provincial  legislative  councils,  and  an  equal 
part  of  the  Imperial  Council,  shall  be  elective. 
But  India,  neither  internally  nor  externally,  is 
safe  for  democracy.  She  has  no  unity  of  language, 
race,  or  religion;  her  social  system  is  aristocratic 
and  divisive.  Looking  forward  into  the  next 
century,  one  must  see  that  the  destiny  of  India 
is  bound  up  with  the  settlement  of  the  entire 
Oriental  question.  England  must  keep  her  hand 
on  India,  just  as  we  must  watch  over  the  Philip- 
pines, until  such  a  time  as  the  Orient  becomes 
safe  for  weak  races,  until  the  weakness  to  which 
republican  governments  are  liable  will  not  expose 
her  to  the  aggressions  of  some  covetous  and 
efficient  neighbor;  or,  until  India  herself  has  been 
[240] 


FOREIGN  MISSIONS  AND  DEMOCRACY 

able  to  underlay  her  republican  institutions 
with  substantial  foundations. 

Since  the  War  began,  I  have  visited  every 
continent  save  one;  I  have  been  within  sound 
of  the  guns  on  each  side  of  the  firing  line  in  Europe; 
I  was  in  Peking  when  the  waves  of  the  newest 
revolution  broke  in  China.  It  is  my  observation 
that  the  War  has  accentuated  pride  of  race, 
desire  for  complete  self-government,  and  the 
establishment  of  democratic  institutions  around 
the  world.  The  demands  which  have  been 
made  upon  the  backward  races  and  the  non- 
Christian  nations  to  join  in  the  struggle,  have 
greatly  exalted  these  peoples  in  their  own  estima- 
tion and  in  the  regard  of  the  whole  world.  This 
very  fact  increases  the  difficulty  of  the  problem 
which  we  shall  have  to  face  in  the  very  near 
future.  There  is  not  a  non-Christian  nation  to- 
day in  which  democracy  is  safe;  and  there  are 
several  so-called  Christian  nations,  in  which  the 
form  of  Christianity  has  been  so  constrained  and 
perverted  that  democracy  is  hardly  secure. 

Without  wishing  in  any  way  to  displace  the 
soldier  in  the  affection  and  loyal  support  of  all 
lovers  of  justice  and  right,  I  would  place  beside 
him  the  foreign  missionary  as  equally  worthy  of 
the  confidence  and  support  of  those  who  are 
truly  determined  to  safeguard  the  democracy 
of  the  world. 

I  quite  realize  that  the  foreign  missionary  has 
never  won  his  way  to  popular  enthusiasm.  He 
has  been  dismissed  as  a  visionary  and  a  bother. 
[241  ] 


THE  DEMOCRATIC  MOVEMENT  IN  ASIA 

His  work  has  seemed  to  many  both  unnecessary 
and  prosaic.  Even  the  Church,  which  sent  him 
to  his  task  and  maintained  him  there,  has  never, 
perhaps,  taken  him  quite  so  seriously  as  she 
now  takes  her  other  sons  who  go  to  France. 
The  Church  at  large  has  known  little  more  than 
the  general  public  of  what  the  foreign  missionary 
is  really  doing.  To  many,  his  task  has  seemed 
like  a  rather  hopeless  race  with  death  to  save  a 
few  thousand  souls  from  hell.  Indeed,  the 
missionary  himself,  lost  in  the  immediate  duty, 
has  not  always  been  able  to  measure  the  full 
circle  of  his  influence.  It  is  only  within  the  last 
few  years  that  the  dimensions  of  the  work  of 
Christianizing  the  world  have  come  to  appear 
in  their  full  proportions. 

And  yet  it  is  true,  to  a  very  large  degree,  that 
the  missionary  has  been  the  carrier  of  the  dem- 
ocratic ideal  to  the  four  corners  of  the  earth. 
He  has  preceded  the  explorer  and  the  trader 
in  opening  up  the  highways  of  commerce.  It 
was  through  the  missionary,  and  those  who  came 
in  his  train,  that  the  vague  forces,  which  taken 
together  we  call  Western  civilization,  began  to 
impinge  upon  the  barriers  erected  by  backward 
races.  Others  in  more  recent  years  have  carried 
in  the  trade  and  the  devices  of  civilization,  but 
it  has  been  left  largely  to  the  missionary  to 
carry  the  idealism  out  of  which  civilization  itself 
has  come. 

The  Bible  has  gone  out  to  the  ends  of  the 
earth.  None  of  us  stopped  for  the  moment  to 
[242] 


FOREIGN  MISSIONS  AND  DEMOCRACY 

remember  the  political,  economic,  and  social 
consequences  that  have  always  followed  the 
circulation  of  the  Bible.  Now  we  find  the  back- 
ward races  in  commotion.  They  follow  the  open 
Bible,  as  harvest  follows  seedtime. 

The  missionary  first  asks  for  religious  liberty, 
and  then  proclaims  the  inclusive  and  sweeping 
doctrines  of  the  fatherhood  of  God  and  the 
brotherhood  of  man.  He  establishes  schools 
which  not  only  teach  the  elementary  branches, 
but  set  the  example  of  equality  by  opening  their 
doors  to  the  poorest  and  most  oppressed.  The 
missionary  hospital  places  a  new  value  on  the 
human  body  and  sets  standards  for  the  con- 
servation of  life.  It  teaches  charity  and  mercy. 
Through  these  channels  go  out  the  very  influences 
which  create  the  ideals  of  brotherhood  and 
democracy. 

The  missionary  does  not  force  conflicts  with 
existing  laws.  He  appeals  to  something  far 
more  fundamental  and  persuasive — to  public 
opinion;  and,  just  in  proportion  as  he  gains  the 
support  of  public  opinion,  the  old  order  begins 
to  crumble. 

When  the  missionary  makes  a  convert,  he 
makes  a  radical.  With  all  the  tact  he  possesses, 
and  he  usually  has  a  good  deal,  he  says  in  effect: 
The  religion  of  your  father  and  mother  was  wrong. 
When  the  convert  accepts  baptism  he  must,  as 
it  always  has  been,  forsake  his  father  and  his 
mother.  He  must  also  repudiate  the  entire 
social  system  which  has  been  the  meat  and 
[  243  ] 


THE  DEMOCRATIC  MOVEMENT  IN  ASIA  I 

drink  of  his  family,  clan,  nation,  and  race.  What 
wonder,  then,  that  the  Christian  convert  is  a 
man  with  capacities  for  radical  thought  and 
action? 

The  young  men  and  women  then  enter  the 
missionary  school,  and  there  fashion  and  sharpen 
the  weapons  that  become  their  superior  equip- 
ment for  the  spreading  of  the  new  ideas  they 
have  acquired.  The  student  learns  to  care 
properly  for  his  body,  thus  finding  an  effective 
instrument  to  support  his  new  convictions.  His 
mind  is  trained  and  disciplined,  so  that  he  goes 
back  to  his  people  better  able  than  they  to  think 
clearly,  and  to  reach  sound  conclusions.  He 
carries  with  him  a  vast  fund  of  idealism  drawn 
Trom  all  the  deposits  of  a  more  ejQficient  civiliza-< 
tion.  His  very  presence  and  superior  accom- 
plishments are  sources  of  worthy  discontent 
among  his  less-favored  brothers. 

"Every  church  in  Asia,"  said  Bishop  W.  S. 
Lewis  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  missions  the 
other  day,  "is  a  miniature  republic.  The  only 
trial  by  jury  which  the  Chinese  know,  is  that 
which  is  practiced  in  the  discipline  of  the  Church." 

The  missionary  is,  without  doubt,  the  chief 
cause  of  the  fact  that  America  has  come  to  a 
place  of  such  influence  among  the  Asiatics.  Pe»j 
haps  it  is  partly  because  of  the  democratic  naturf 
of  that  influence,  that  Japan  views  with  occasional 
alarm  the  approach  of  the  United  States  m\ 
Eastern  Asia. 

It  is  evident  that  the  missionary  commands 
[244)] 


I 


FOREIGN  MISSIONS  AND  DEMOCRACY 


he  approach  to  the  backward  races.  The  Bishop 
4 of  Calcutta  said  to  me  not  long  ago,  when  we 
were  discussing  the  unrest  in  India:  "For  thirty 
years  I  taught  Green's  English  History  to  stu- 
dents in  a  mission  college.  I  always  said  to 
myself,  after  finishing  the  course,  *If  these  boys 
don't  appropriate  some  of  these  ideals,  it  will 
not  be  my  fault.'  "  Today  India  is  beginning 
to  be  vibrant  with  the  ideals,  the  development 
of  which  Professor  Green  recorded. 

Equally  evident  is  the  fact,  that  in  the  future 
the  missionary  must  carry  forward  the  work  to 
make  these  ideals  safe  for  the  peoples  who  have 
adopted  them.  Until  they  are  safe  in  Asia,  they 
will  not  be  secure  in  Europe  or  in  America,  for 
this  modern  globe  is  each  year  becoming  smaller. 

From  the  beginning  most  missionaries  have 
realized  that  their  work  looked  two  ways.  They 
were  engaged  in  an  effort  to  bring  the  individual 
soul  to  an  experience  of  personal  religion.  They 
have  also  been  laying  the  foundations  of  a  new 
social  order,  remaking  a  civilization,  or  even 
building  a  new  one.  Certainly  men  like  Living- 
stone and  Carey  saw  this. 

However,  early  missionary  work  had,  per- 
force, to  confine  itseK  to  the  intensive  cultivation 
of  a  very  few  people.  Usually  the  first  converts 
were  drawn  from  the  servant,  outcaste,  and 
coolie  classes,  or  from  other  low  social  orders. 
The  upper  strata,  the  literati,  the  leaders  of 
public  opinion,  the  men  well  versed  in  their 
own  native  culture,  were  not  attracted.  As  the 
£245] 


THE  DEMOCRATIC  MOVEMENT  IN  ASIA 

lower  and  oppressed  classes  responded  more  and 
more  to  the  Gospel,  the  upper  classes  removed 
themselves  farther  and  farther  from  it.  It  was 
not  their  habit  to  join  in  with  the  coolie  and 
call  him  "Brother."  The  printing  press  was 
employed  to  print  tracts,  Scripture  portions,  and 
Bibles;  the  hospital  was  introduced  to  draw  a 
crowd;  and  the  school  was  a  card  of  introduction 
to  the  home,  or  a  hothouse  for  intensive  spiritual 
cultivation.  The  less  inclusive  definitions  of  the 
doctrine  of  salvation  inclined  everyone  to  measure 
the  progress  of  the  work  solely  by  the  number 
of  baptisms.  When  attention  was  drawn  to  the 
fact  that  among  the  converts  not  many  wise 
and  not  many  mighty  were  called,  comfort  was 
found  in  the  fact  that  Christianity  has  always 
first  prospered  among  the  lowly. 

The  day  of  those  humble  beginnings  is  past. 
Christianity  is  now  being  carried  along  on  two 
tides:  on  the  one  side,  there  are  masses  of  people 
from  the  lower  classes  seeking  for  the  Gospel; 
and,  on  the  other,  there  are  increasing  numbers 
of  the  educated  and  influential  turning  to  it. 

The  missionary  purpose  has  not  changed,  but 
it  has  extended  itself.  It  now  includes  tens  of 
thousands  of  people  where  formerly  it  reached 
only  to  tens.  It  embraces  work  among  all  classes 
instead  of  being  limited  to  a  single  group.  In 
addition,  it  now  includes  responsibilities  for 
social  leadership,  of  which  none  of  the  pioneers 
could  have  even  dreamed. 

The  work  of  evangelism  still  goes  on  with 
[246] 


FOREIGN  MISSIONS  AND  DEMOCRACY 

daily  marked  acceleration.  There  are  several 
denominations  now  at  work  in  Asia,  any  one 
of  which  baptizes  in  a  single  year  more  converts 
probably  than  there  were  Christians  at  the 
time  of  the  death  of  the  Apostle  Paul.  Among 
these  converts  the  outcastes  and  lower  classes 
are  still  largely  in  the  majority. 

A  notable  illustration  of  this  fact  is  seen  in 
the  mass  movements  of  India.  These  move- 
ments represent,  excepting  possibly  those  of 
Russia,  the  greatest  social  phenomenon  of  the 
century.  They  look  toward  real  democracy. 
Hinduism,  the  social  structure  of  more  than 
200,000,000  people,  is,  to  borrow  a  figure  of 
speech  of  Bishop  W.  F.  Oldham,  a  pyramid. 
At  the  top  are  the  few  Brahmins;  at  the  bottom 
are  forty  or  fifty  million  outcastes.  They  live 
by  themselves  in  the  least  desirable  part  of  the 
village,  doing  the  most  menial  work;  they  are 
regarded  by  the  caste  people  as  literally  the 
scum  of  the  earth,  and  are  treated  as  such.  Their 
lot  is  more  pitiable  than  that  of  slaves.  Large 
portions  of  this  Hindu  outcaste  population  are 
fairly  stampeding  toward  Christianity,  coming  to 
the  missionary  in  groups,  even  by  villages,  to 
seek  baptism.  It  would  probably  not  be  a  very 
difficult  matter,  if  it  were  wise,  to  baptize  in  the 
near  future  five,  perhaps  ten  million  outcastes. 
They  are  the  foundation  of  Hinduism.  They 
carry  the  load.  When  they  move  out  from  under, 
the  entire  social  structure  must  topple. 

The  Bishop  of  Madras,  who  has  been,  in  India 


THE  DEMOCRATIC  MOVEMENT  IN  ASIA 

thirty  years  and  who  has  made  a  careful  study 
of  the  subject,  said  to  me: 

"The  outcastes,  considered  as  material  on 
which  to  work,  are  not  inferior  to  the  Brahmins. 
When  the  two  classes  are  received  into  the  same 
school  and  given  equal  opportunities,  they  do 
equally  well.  In  fact,  one  cannot  tell  them  apart 
after  a  few  years  of  education.  The  educated 
outcaste  can  enter  government  service  or  the 
Church,  and  hold  his  own  with  any  one.  There 
is  no  reason  why  the  Church  cannot  make  con- 
verts among  the  outcastes  at  the  rate  of  a  million 
a  year.  That  means,  that,  in  forty  or  fifty  years, 
the  entire  outcaste  population  will  be  Christian. 
India  would  then  have  a  Christian  population 
nearly  as  large  as  the  present  Mohammedan 
section,  but  far  stronger  and  more  influential." 

But  missions  have  not  merely  to  deal  with  out- 
caste Hindus.  They  have  also  to  reckon  with 
other  and  quite  different  people. 

I  searched  out  the  leaders  of  Mohammedanism 
in  India.  At  Lucknow  I  had  an  interview  with 
the  Secretary  of  the  All-India  Moslem  League, 
a  political  organization  now  seeking  to  lead  the 
Mohammedans  to  unite  with  the  Hindus. 

"What  do  the  Moslems  propose  to  do  for  India 
in  the  matter  of  religion?"  I  asked. 

He  looked  at  me  a  moment,  smiled  a  little, 
and  said:  "We  Mohammedans  cannot  close  our 
eyes  to  the  fact  that  Islam  is  a  decaying  and 
diminishing  institution." 

At  Aligarh,  the  city  of  the  great  Mohammedan 
[  M8  ] 


i 


THE  BRITISH  GOVERNMENT  FINDS 
IT  WISE  TO  ESTABLISH  A  QUARAN- 
TINE FOR  ALL  RETURNING  EMI- 
GRANTS, WHERE  EVERYONE  IS  CARE- 
FULLY SCRUTINIZED  FOR  POSSIBLE 
DISLOYALTY.  DURING       THE       WAR 

MANILA  HAS  BEEN  A  POPULAR  RE- 
SORT FOR  THOSE  WHO  HAVE  PLOTTED 
TO   STIR  UP  REVOLUTION  IN   INDIA. 


FOREIGN  MISSIONS  AND  DEMOCRACY 

university  of  India,  I  went  to  the  leading  pro- 
fessors and  asked,  "How  do  you  state  your 
personal  religious  faith?  What  have  you,  as  a 
Mussulman,  to  offer  to  India?" 

Their  replies  were  almost  uniformly  the  same: 
"We  are  not  religious  men.  Islam  is  not  a  vital 
spiritual  force  in  India,  and  never  will  be." 
These  men  are  all  of  them  cultured  and  well 
educated;  many  of  them  are  graduates  of  English 
universities.  They  are  practically  without  re- 
ligious faith;  and,  by  their  own  statements,  their 
attachment  to  Islam  is  by  the  slenderest  of 
threads.    It  is  largely  fraternal. 

In  Japan  I  said  to  a  prominent  Christian  lay- 
man in  whom  the  pride  of  race  and  sense  of 
nationalism  run  strong:  "Do  you  need  any  more 
American  missionaries  in  Japan?"  I  expected 
him  to  assert  his  national  pride,  and  assure  me 
that  Japanese  Christianity  is  quite  prepared  to 
assume  the  responsibility  for  completing  the 
evangelization  of  the  Empire.  To  my  surprise, 
he  replied: 

"Yes,  we  do  need  American  missionaries. 
We  need  them  for  work  among  our  educated  and 
wealthy  classes.  Our  ministers  often  lack  the 
social  qualities  and  the  financial  support  which 
would  make  it  possible  for  them  to  meet  these 
classes  on  a  footing  of  social  equality." 

One  of   the  most   vigorous   manifestations  of 

Christianity  in  Japan  today  is  that  men  of  great 

national  influence  and  leadership  are  studying  the 

Bible  and  the  Christian  faith.    Hardly  a  month 

[249] 


THE  DEMOCRATIC  MOVEMENT  IN  ASIA 

passes    without    the    announcement    that    some 
conspicuous  Japanese  leader  has  been  baptized. 

The  missionary  formerly  worked  months,  and 
even  long  years,  for  a  single  convert,  and,  when 
he  had  secured  him,  had  only  a  single  illiterate 
man  from  the  lower  classes.  Now  he  has  access- 
ible, on  the  one  hand,  millions  of  lower  class 
people;  and,  on  the  other,  an  increasing  number 
of  men  and  women  who  are  already  the  great 
leaders  among  their  countrymen.  The  present 
mission  staff  and  equipment  is  adapted  largely 
for  dealing  with  the  man  of  the  lower  classes, 
and  for  dealing  with  him  individually.  Slowly 
the  skeleton  organization  has  been  expanded 
and  partially  filled  out;  but  no  church  has  yet 
grasped  these  larger  opportunities  for  personal 
evangelism,  which  the  last  few  years  and  decades 
have  brought. 

The  missionary  has  been  trained  and  developed 
primarily  for  the  older  work — that  among  the 
lower  classes.  As  the  opportunity  has  grown, 
schools,  hospitals,  and  publishing  houses  have 
been  added — these  also  being  designed  to  care 
for  work  already  under  way.  Now,  with  few 
exceptions,  the  missionaries  on  the  field  are  tied 
down  to  the  direction  of  these  institutions. 
They  must  supervise  the  churches  and  the  native 
pastors;  run  the  hospital;  manage  the  printing 
press;  keep  accounts;  and,  in  the  greater  pro- 
portion of  fields,  cultivate  an  American  con- 
stituency to  meet  their  increasing  needs  for  more 
money.  Many  missionaries  are  now  compelled, 
[250] 


FOREIGN  MISSIONS  AND  DEMOCRACY 

aside  from  their  own  salaries,  to  finance  the 
greater  part  of  their  work.  There  is  a  man  in 
India  whose  mission  expenses  run  from  1,200  to 
1,500  rupees  a  month.  He  receives  300  by  appro- 
priation; the  remainder  he  must  raise  as  best 
he  can.  More  extraordinary  still,  is  the  fact 
that  he  actually  raises  it. 

I  know  of  relatively  few  missionaries  who  are 
prepared  and  free  to  undertake  the  new  work 
among  the  upper  classes.  There  is  an  urgent 
need  in  the  Orient  for  highly  trained  and  cul- 
tured men  to  meet  on  common  ground  the  grad- 
uate of  Oxford  or  Cambridge,  the  graduate  and 
Doctor  of  Philosophy  from  Yale  or  Columbia. 
These  men,  fresh  from  their  studies,  often  have 
better  and  more  up-to-date  libraries  than  the 
missionary  could  afford  to  possess.  One  cannot 
fairly  expect  these  men  to  join  enthusiastically 
in  the  work  of  a  church  where  practically  all  the 
other  members  are  barely  literate.  Nor  are 
such  converts  likely  to  enjoy  the  ministrations 
of  a  preacher  with  less  than  a  high  school  edu- 
cation. 

The  missionary  task  is  so  little  finished  that 
its  present  state  is  precarious.  The  first  impact 
of  Christianity,  as  well  as  of  Western  civilization, 
is  more  destructive  than  constructive.  Its  in- 
direct and  more  extended  influence  is  to  destroy 
or  weaken  old  sanctions  before  it  can  create 
new  ones.  In  the  wake  of  the  missionary  comes 
a  flood  of  influences  that  tend  to  demoralize. 
To  pry  loose  from  age-long  conservatism  these 
[251] 


THE  DEMOCRATIC  MOVEMENT  IN  ASIA 

peoples  of  Asia,  and  then  to  leave  them  without 
adequate  leadership  before  they  are  able  to  care 
for  themselves,  would  be  nothing  less  than 
perfidy.  To  relax  for  one  moment  the  steadying, 
guiding,  inspiring  leadership  of  Christian  mis- 
sions in  Asia,  while  Eastern  civilization  is  in 
chaos,  would  be  only  to  permit  the  present  chaos 
to  extend  itself.  The  energetic  prosecution  of 
the  foreign  missionary  enterprise  is  a  duty  as 
much  as  is  the  prosecution  of  the  War. 

The  world  cannot  exist  half  slave  and  half 
free,  even  when  the  slavery  is  but  the  bondage 
of  illiteracy,  ignorance,  and  superstition.  We 
embarked  upon  a  war  to  safeguard  democracy. 
By  the  same  logic  are  we  impelled  to  continue 
the  task,  both  now  and  after  the  War  be  over, 
of  underwriting  a  world  democracy  with  a  world 
Christianity.  There  is  at  hand  no  other  proposal 
by  which  the  results  of  the  War  may  be  per- 
manently conserved  to  the  backward  races. 


[262] 


14  DAY  USE 

RETURN  TO  DESK  FROM  WHICH  BORROWED 

LOAN  DEPT. 

This  book  is  due  on  the  last  date  stamped  below,  or 

on  the  date  to  which  renewed. 

Renewed  books  are  subject  to  immediate  recall. 


2g'iil'64SWr 


MAY  19 1988      ^ 


REC'D  LD 


m 


JUL  2  5 '64-121* 


l7N!ar'6&AA — 


REC'D  LD 


m  |\PR191988 


MAR  5    -es-lZ 


I 


FEB     81966  6 


Ct^^Ag'C^^ 


^X5'66-3Bi 


LD  21A-60m-4,'64 
(E45558l0)476B 


General  Library 
University  of  California 


VA  038S9 


THE  UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA  LIBRARY 


U.C.  BERKELEY  LIBRARIES 


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